Tra-la-la, tra-la-la -- A A Milne

Guest poem (and prose) submitted by Siddhartha Joshi:

Since 14 Oct is Winnie-the-Pooh's birthday (as per my Pooh calendar)...

(Poem #576) Tra-la-la, tra-la-la He had made up a little hum that very morning, as he was doing his Stoutness Exercises in front of the glass: Tra-la-la, tra-la-la, as he stretched up as high as he could go, and then Tra-la-la, tra-la--oh, help!--la, as he tried to reach his toes. After breakfast he had said it over and over to himself until he had learnt it off by heart, and now he was humming it right through, properly. It went like this: Tra-la-la, tra-la-la, Tra-la-la, tra-la-la, Rum-tum-tiddle-um-tum. Tiddle-iddle, tiddle-iddle, Tiddle-iddle, tiddle-iddle, Rum-tum-tum-tiddle-um. -- A A Milne

I love the wonderful, exuberant brand of poetry that Milne conjured up;
verses like
        "Sing Ho! for the life of a Bear!
         I don't much mind if it rains or snows,
         'Cos I've got a lot of honey on my nice new nose!"
are such an important part of the magic of his stories. Indeed, few chapters
of Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner are without verse of some
form - usually sung ("he murmured this to himself three times in a singing
sort of way") by Pooh Bear or his other (stuffed) animal chums. That's also
the reason I'm including the text snippets that the verses are embedded in -
in the books :-) - it just doesn't read *right* without them.

Siddhartha.

[Links]

[broken link] http://www.machaon.ru/pooh/

[Moreover]

So Owl wrote ... and this is what he wrote:

        HIPY PAPY BTHUTHDTH THUTHDA BTHUTHDY.

Pooh looked on admiringly.

"I'm just saying 'A Happy Birthday'," said Owl carelessly.

"It's a nice long one," said Pooh, very much impressed by it.

"Well, actually, of course, I'm saying 'A Very Happy Birthday with love from
Pooh.' Naturally it takes a good deal of pencil to say a long thing like
that."

"Oh, I see," said Pooh.

        -- A. A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh.