Back to childhood.

Guess who my new favorite poet is?

I found an old book of his poems in the attic. It belonged to my dad in the sixties.

No, it's not John Milton or Gerard Manley Hopkins. They're wonderful, but I'm dipping into simpler literary fare these days. I've become a big fan of A. A. Milne, creator of Winnie the Pooh.

Now, before you blow him off as a mere kids' poet, let me explain why he is so delightful to me.

A. A. Milne writes in a somewhat twee British style, but if you ponder a bit on any one of his poems, you'll inevitably discover a deeper layer of emotion or meaning. In some of his poems, he captures the feeling of a small child in a world run by adults. In others, he portrays the ready imagination of most little kids. In the poem "The Wrong House," he probes the melancholy feeling of an uncared-for home. In "Spring Morning," he takes you back to the way you felt when you had no responsibilities.

And sometimes, he even gets a bit philosophical. Remember this poem?

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!"

A. A. Milne, The World of Christopher Robin

(c) 1958, by E. P. Dutton &Co., Inc.

Illustration by E. H. Shepard