Analysis of The Four Friends

Alan Alexander Milne 1882 – 1956



Ernest was an elephant, a great big fellow,
Leonard was a lion with a six foot tail,
George was a goat, and his beard was yellow,
And James was a very small snail.

Leonard had a stall, and a great big strong one,
Earnest had a manger, and its walls were thick,
George found a pen, but I think it was the wrong one,
And James sat down on a brick

Earnest started trumpeting, and cracked his manger,
Leonard started roaring, and shivered his stall,
James gave a huffle of a snail in danger
And nobody heard him at all.

Earnest started trumpeting and raised such a rumpus,
Leonard started roaring and trying to kick,
James went on a journey with the goats new compass
And he reached the end of his brick.

Ernest was an elephant and very well intentioned,
Leonard was a lion with a brave new tail,
George was a goat, as I think I have mentioned,
but James was only a snail.


Scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GDGD HBHB
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 101110001110 10101010111 1101011110 01101011 10101001111 10101001101 110111111011 0111101 101010001110 10101001011 1101101010 011111 101010001101 10101001011 111010101110 01101111 10111000101010 10101010111 11011111110 1111001
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 861
Words 168
Sentences 5
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 136
Words per stanza (avg) 33
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 19, 2023

50 sec read
164

Alan Alexander Milne

Alan Alexander Milne was an English author, best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh and for various poems. Milne was a noted writer, primarily as a playwright, before the huge success of Pooh overshadowed all his previous work. more…

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