Untitled by A. A. Milne

A. A. Milne was also a poet and this is an untitled poem from "Winnie-the-Pooh." A feature of Pooh is his way of coming up with lyrics or poems for any situation. In this situation he is trying to sneak up on bees in a tree to steal honey. It is decided a blue balloon will blend with the sky, so he goes unnoticed.

Repeated lines at the beginning of stanzas read, "How sweet to be a cloud floating in the blue!" Referring to the blue sky and blue balloon it creates imagery associated to belonging, "... always sings aloud." This states unobtrusive people are free to express themselves. Though their voice blends with others, as a choir no one is singled out. Therefore, the freedom of clouds is a freedom produced by belonging.

Later on Milne expresses through the character of Pooh of how proud he is to be a cloud, except, he isn't a cloud. He is a yellow bear. The plan does not go as planned and Pooh complains they were the wrong kind of bees and gives up. Through the continuation of the story, we see someone who wants to fit in. When the plan fails he no longer wants the honey.

Another aspect created through the use of a poem in a story is a combative nature of camouflage. Clouds float in the blue sky, while his intentions were to commit theft. Perhaps if he was really a blue cloud, the incident would have gone unnoticed only wanting float in the sky after the plan failed.

A poem in a children's book, it takes awhile to figure out where a person belongs. This poem infers a few methods of knowing whether or not a person belongs or is "real." The excerpt comes from a chapter entitled "Winnie-the-Pooh and Some Bees."

Quirky Books
Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne