First published in 1927.
As both reader and poet, I revel in the freedom of free verse. I bask in the beauty of an elegant haiku. But I admit I have a special addiction to the way rhyming, rhythmic poems make words and ideas sing. One can view my constant childhood exposure to Broadway show tunes, folk songs and Dr. Seuss as a cautionary tale. Not to mention that two of the earliest books I remember hearing, reading and rereading were A. A. Milne’s poetry volumes WHEN WE WERE VERY YOUNG and NOW WE ARE SIX. These brilliant standards of beautiful language, rhyme, emotional intelligence contain so many favorite poems. I’ve selected the poem “Sneezles” as an example of why I’m hooked.
Right from the start (though the arrangement of lines makes the rhythm less obvious visually) we readers are caught in the playful, three-part rhythm of the dactyl as it swings us along: strong/soft/soft strong/soft/soft. Feel free to clap along as you read aloud, with an extra-loud clap for the strong beat in each three-part dactyl:
Chris/to/pher Ro/bin
Had whee/zles
And snee/zles,
They bun/dled him
In/to
His bed.
If you print the lines as I have below, the dactylic rhythm is even more apparent:
Chris/to/pher Ro/bin had
Whee/zles and snee/zles, they
Bun/dled him in/to his
Bed.
Peachtree Publishers, August, 2012.
I shouldn’t play favorites, but I have to admit that the dactyl (which sounds a bit like it should mean finger) is my favorite metrical foot. And the double dactyl is my favorite poetic form. Check out the double dactyl I wrote for 30 Poets in 30 Days, the celebration of National Poetry Month on gottabook.blogspot.com. But back to “Sneezles”…
Swinging along in dactyls, the poem can be viewed in alternating four-beat line, three-beat line stanzas of four lines each. On the page, the poem isn’t presented in this form, though it follows the meter and rhyme scheme (four-foot line, three-foot line, four-foot line, three-foot line, with second and fourth lines rhyming) of a standard ballad stanza.
Written as a ballad stanza, it might look like this:
Christopher Robin had wheezles and sneezles,
They bundled him into his bed.
They gave him what goes with a cold in the nose,
And some more for a cold in the head.
Charlesbridge Publishing, June 2006.
The poem can also be viewed as pairs of three-line stanzas, with two, two-foot lines and a third, three-foot line that rhymes with the end-line of then next stanza in the pair:
Christopher Robin had
Wheezles and sneezles,
They bundled him into his bed.
They gave him what goes
With a cold in the nose
And some more for a cold in the head.
The actual way A. A. Milne arranged this poem on the page highlights every rhyming pair, whether an end rhyme or an internal rhyme. To my ear, the poet can put the words anywhere he likes thanks to that insistent, persistent dactylic rhythm.
Peachtree Publishers, April 2011.
What else is there to love about “Sneezles”? One sure way to delight me as a reader is to surprise me with the ingenuity of the rhyme. Look at how A. A. Milne rhymed “conditions” and “physicians”—you don’t see that rhyming pair every day. If the poem had included “cat” and “hat”—well, that’s been done. The poet also employs one of my absolute favorite poetic techniques: making up words. Can’t come up with another rhyme for “sneezles”? How about “reazles”? Or “breezles”? And for that matter, why not “PTHEEZLES”?
“Now how to amuse them today?”
Fun, fun, FUN!
Leslie Bulion.
Leslie Bulion teams a life-long love of poetry and her science background in humorous children’s poetry collections including AT THE SEA FLOOR CAFE,HEY THERE, STINK BUG! and the upcoming RANDOM BODY PARTS: GROSS ANATOMY RIDDLES IN VERSE. Her other books include the middle-grade novels UNCHARTED WATERS, THE TROUBLE WITH RULES, and THE UNIVERSE OF FAIR (Peachtree, August 2012) and her picture book, FATUMA’S NEW CLOTH. A former school social worker, Leslie has written and edited books in the education market and has written nationally for parents and educators. She gives writing workshops and presentations to students, educators and writers throughout the US.
For further discussion of poetic form, visit Leslie’s guest post on DIYMFA.com. For more information about Leslie, or to contact her please visit her website www.lesliebulion.com and check out her poem set to music/book trailer from AT THE SEA FLOOR CAFE. Find Leslie Bulion, Children’s Author on Facebook, and @LeslieBulion on Twitter.
