April is Poetry Month – Day 29

We love Winnie the Pooh at our house.  I don’t mean the Disney version but the original Winnie the Pooh books by A.A. Milne with pictures by E.H. Shepard.  Many things from those books have become part of our “family vocabulary” over the years:  I talk about being a “bear of little brain” when I forget things or do something silly, we talk about all of “Rabbit’s friends and relations” when there is a large group of attendees, I scold the boys to not be like “Rabbit” when they get bossy, a person who looks at life from a gloomy perspective is an “Eeyore”, I encourage them to eat well by remarking that they don’t want to grow up “small and weak like Piglet”, a person who is bouncy and tiring is a “Tigger”, and so on.

One of the poems from the books that has become part of our family vocabulary is The More It Snows.  Often when it snows and we are caught outside in it, one or more of us will quote this little poem/song from Pooh:

The more it snows (Tiddely-Pom)

The more it goes  (Tiddely-Pom)

The more it goes on snowing  (Tiddely-Pom)

And nobody knows  (Tiddely-Pom)

How cold my toes (Tiddely-Pom)

How cold my toes are growing (Tiddely-Pom Tiddely-Pom Tiddely-Pom Tiddely-Pom)

 

A.A. Milne also wrote a couple of books of verses for children, When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six.  This is a favorite poem from the former book:

Lines and Squares

Whenever I walk in a London street,
I’m ever so careful to watch my feet;
And I keep in the squares,
And the masses of bears,
Who wait at the corners all ready to eat
The sillies who tread on the lines of the street
Go back to their lairs,
And I say to them, “Bears,
Just look how I’m walking in all the squares!”

And the little bears growl to each other, “He’s mine,
As soon as he’s silly and steps on a line.”
And some of the bigger bears try to pretend
That they came round the corner to look for a friend;
And they try to pretend that nobody cares
Whether you walk on the lines or squares.
But only the sillies believe their talk;
It’s ever so portant how you walk.
And it’s ever so jolly to call out, “Bears,
Just watch me walking in all the squares!”

Alan Alexander Milne