“Binker” relates the lifestyle of an imaginary friend. In “King John’s Christmas” a silly king wishes for nothing more than an India rubber ball. In the 35 poems of Now We Are Six, Milne continues his versifying observations of childhood. The final poem of this collection, “Vespers” (in which Christopher Robin says his bedtime prayers) is apparently the property of the Library of the Queen’s Doll’s House. Among the standouts are “Happiness” (because the above poem by Dorothy Parker spoofs it), “Disobedience” (starring James James Morrison Morrison Weatherby George Dupree), “Teddy Bear” (featuring Edward Bear, better known to us as Pooh), and “Bad Sir Brian Botany” (about a bully’s comeuppance).

Most of the poems would make excellent bedtime reading for a child up to 5 years of age, though only a few of them will often be requested as encores. What you will find in When We Were Very Young is 45 brief verses colored by sentimentality, fatherly indulgence, and a love of childhood. Dorothy Parker, for instance, reviewing one of Milne’s books in her Constant Reader column in The New Yorker, observed: “Tonstant Weader fwowed up.” And while I am digressing, here is part of the poem Parker wrote in response to being called “America’s A. Some may find their unvarying tone of infantile sweetness rather cloying. To be sure, not all of it is poetry of the highest calibre. And all of it looks at the world through the eyes of a small, active child (sometimes, but not always, Christopher Robin), a child between the ages of three and six whose mind is full of questions and games and make-believe. There is also mention of a bear (whose name is sometimes, but not always, Pooh) and of a Pooh (who is sometimes, but not always, a bear).

Shepard are several pictures of a well-known toy bear. Among the lighthearted “decorations” by Ernest H. These slender books of children’s poetry are often boxed together with Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner as a set.

When we were young aa milne