E.H. Shepard’s illustrations enhance Mr. Milne’s poems and prose. Thank you for including the illustration with this post.
I am so glad that I was introduced to Winnie-the-Pooh as a child. The rhythm, repetition, meaning, and of course the accompanying illustrations engage the reader no matter our age. Your explanation of the poem’s structure makes our enjoyment more robust. Halfway Down is another favorite example.
I am deeply delighted that you featured this poem, and the analysis was spot-on. I think Milne’s children’s poems have become my absolute favorites, as an adult. We will always read Stevenson on repeat, but I am always thrilled when my child’s hand moves to Milne sometimes instead. (Also, I just love the book itself, small enough so that it fits in the hand just right, with its unobtrusive yet wonderfully suggestive pen-and-ink drawings!!)
I do not feel sorry for this child. Of all the milk puddings, rice is the least bad. Semolina, for example, is plain awful. One of the milk puddings in my school was rightly called frog spawn, and for good reason. It was not the rice. Even my school rice pudding was OK, and my own homemade, with Spanish paella rice, is delicious. If one has to have a plain pudding on repeat, one could do worse than rice.
No accounting for taste. I was one of those weird children who loved any kind of milky pudding --- I don't think I've ever had semolina pudding (although I happily ate Cream of Wheat for breakfast), but my mother used to make tapioca pudding, and I also consumed that with delight. Now I look at tapioca in its raw, pearl form and think, hm --- though I did use it in a Norwegian fruit soup at Christmas last year.
But again, I was one of those children who would eat anything happily, just because it was in front of me. My brother was the opposite. I've never asked him how he feels about rice pudding . . .
Oh happy memory. When I was very young, I loved this book and the illustrations. That bent stubborn head and the flying shoe - funny then and once you grow up to become that clueless mother, funny again.
E.H. Shepard’s illustrations enhance Mr. Milne’s poems and prose. Thank you for including the illustration with this post.
I am so glad that I was introduced to Winnie-the-Pooh as a child. The rhythm, repetition, meaning, and of course the accompanying illustrations engage the reader no matter our age. Your explanation of the poem’s structure makes our enjoyment more robust. Halfway Down is another favorite example.
I’ve come back to read this several times since you shared it this morning, and it’s made me laugh every time! It’s perfect!
I am deeply delighted that you featured this poem, and the analysis was spot-on. I think Milne’s children’s poems have become my absolute favorites, as an adult. We will always read Stevenson on repeat, but I am always thrilled when my child’s hand moves to Milne sometimes instead. (Also, I just love the book itself, small enough so that it fits in the hand just right, with its unobtrusive yet wonderfully suggestive pen-and-ink drawings!!)
Yes, the Milne poem books are among my favorite too. I had not thought about how the book fits nicely in my hand.
I do not feel sorry for this child. Of all the milk puddings, rice is the least bad. Semolina, for example, is plain awful. One of the milk puddings in my school was rightly called frog spawn, and for good reason. It was not the rice. Even my school rice pudding was OK, and my own homemade, with Spanish paella rice, is delicious. If one has to have a plain pudding on repeat, one could do worse than rice.
No accounting for taste. I was one of those weird children who loved any kind of milky pudding --- I don't think I've ever had semolina pudding (although I happily ate Cream of Wheat for breakfast), but my mother used to make tapioca pudding, and I also consumed that with delight. Now I look at tapioca in its raw, pearl form and think, hm --- though I did use it in a Norwegian fruit soup at Christmas last year.
But again, I was one of those children who would eat anything happily, just because it was in front of me. My brother was the opposite. I've never asked him how he feels about rice pudding . . .
Oh happy memory. When I was very young, I loved this book and the illustrations. That bent stubborn head and the flying shoe - funny then and once you grow up to become that clueless mother, funny again.