When We Were Very Young - A. A. Milne [8]
“What have you done with your sheep,
Little Bo-Peep?
What have you done with your sheep,
Bo-Peep?”
“Little Boy Blue, what fun!
I’ve lost them, everyone!”
“Oh, what a thing to have done,
Little Bo-Peep!”
“What have you done with your sheep,
Little Boy Blue?
What have you done with your sheep,
Boy Blue?”
“Little Bo-Peep, my sheep
Went off, when I was asleep.”
“I’m sorry about your sheep,
Little Boy Blue.”
“What are you going to do,
Little Bo-Peep?
What are you going to do,
Bo-Peep?”
“Little Boy Blue, you’ll see
They’ll all come home to tea.”
“They wouldn’t do that for me,
Little Bo-Peep.”
“What are you going to do,
Little Boy Blue?
What are you going to do,
Boy Blue?”
“Little Bo-Peep, I’ll blow
My horn for an hour or so.”
Isn’t that rather slow,
Little Boy Blue?”
“Whom are you going to marry,
Little Bo-Peep?
Whom are you going to marry,
Bo-Peep?”
“Little Boy Blue, Boy Blue,
I’d like to marry you.”
“I think I should like it too,
Little Bo-Peep.”
“Where are we going to live,
Little Boy Blue?
Where are we going to live,
Boy Blue?”
“Little Bo-Peep, Bo-Peep,
Up in the hills with the sheep.”
“And you’ll love your little Bo-Peep,
Little Boy Blue?”
I’ll love you for ever and ever,
Little Bo-Peep.
I’ll love you for ever and ever,
Bo-Peep.”
“Little Boy Blue, my dear,
Keep near, keep very near.”
“I shall be always here,
Little Bo-Peep.”
The Mirror
Between the woods the afternoon
Is fallen in a golden swoon,
The sun looks down from quiet skies
To where a quiet water lies,
And silent trees stoop down to trees.
And there I saw a white swan make
Another white swan in the lake;
And, breast to breast, both motionless,
They waited for the wind’s caress…
And all the water was at ease.
Halfway Down
Halfway down the stairs
Is a stair
Where I sit.
There isn’t any
Other stair
Quite like
It.
I’m not at the bottom,
I’m not at the top;
So this is the stair
Where
I always
Stop.
Halfway up the stairs
Isn’t up,
And isn’t down.
It isn’t in the nursery,
It isn’t in the town.
And all sorts of funny thoughts
Run round my head:
“It isn’t really
Anywhere!
It’s somewhere else
Instead!”
The Invaders
In careless patches through the wood
The clumps of yellow primrose stood,
And sheets of white anemones,
Like driven snow against the trees,
Had covered up the violet,
But left the blue-bell bluer yet.
Along the narrow carpet ride,
With primroses on either side,
Between their shadows and the sun,
The cows came slowly, one by one,
Breathing the early morning air
And leaving it still sweeter there.
And, one by one, intent upon
Their purposes, they followed on
In ordered silence…and were gone.
But all the little wood was still,
As if it waited so, until
Some blackbird on an outpost yew,
Watching the slow procession through,
Lifted his yellow beak at last
To whistle that the line had passed….
Then all the wood began to sing
Its morning anthem to the spring.
Before Tea
Emmeline
Has not been seen
For more than a week. She slipped between
The two tall trees at the end of the green…
We all went after her. “Emmeline!”
“Emmeline,
I didn’t mean—
I only said that your hands weren’t clean.”
We went to the trees at the end of the green….
But Emmeline
Was not to be seen.
Emmeline
Came slipping between
The two tall trees at the end of the green.
We all ran up to her. “Emmeline!
Where have you been?
Where have you been?
Why, it’s more than a week!” And Emmeline
Said, “Sillies, I went and saw the Queen.
She says my hands are purfickly clean!”
Teddy Bear
A bear, however hard he tries,
Grows tubby without exercise.
Our Teddy Bear is short and fat
Which is not to be wondered at;
He gets what exercise he can
By falling off the ottoman,
But generally seems to lack
The energy to clamber back.
Now tubbiness is just the thing
Which gets a fellow wondering;
And Teddy worried lots about
The fact that he was rather stout.
He thought: “If only I were thin!