WAITING AT THE WINDOW

by Alan Alexander Milne

These are my two drops of rain

Waiting on the window-pane.

I am waiting here to see

Which the winning one will be.

Both of them have different names.

One is John and one is James.

All the best and all the worst

Comes from which of them is first.

James has just begun to ooze.

He's the one I want to lose.

John is waiting to begin.

He's the one I want to win.

James is going slowly on.

Something sort of sticks to John.

John is moving off at last.

James is going pretty fast.

John is rushing down the pane.

James is going slow again.

James has met a sort of smear.

John is getting very near.

Is he going fast enough?

(James has found a piece of fluff.)

John has quickly hurried by.

(James was talking to a fly.)

John is there, and John has won!

Look! I told you! Here's the sun!

Description of the poem

This poem contains a child’s narration of a race between two raindrops in the midst of a confining rainstorm. 

Summary

The poem, ‘Waiting at the Window’ by A. A. Milne is simple as it is a child’s narration of a race between two raindrops in the midst of a confining rainstorm. At the beginning, the speaker states there are two raindrops on the window. The speaker tells us that the child imagines the two raindrops having a race to the bottom of the glass while waiting for the rainstorm to stop. The child names the raindrops as John and James and proceeds to narrate the raindrops’ descent. As the “race” continues, the raindrops pass and fall behind one another, repeatedly captured in debris. As soon as the droplets reached the bottom of the window, the rainstorm had stop and the sun reappeared. The child is free to go out.

Themes

Patience and Imagination.

Everything the speaker describes after the first two lines have been embellished by their imagination. This child sees the world as much more than what it initially appears to be. It is likely that Milne was hoping to inspire a reader, young or old, to take the time to really view their own world

Settings

Place

- Window-pane

Time

- On a rainy day

Values

Patience

The child wait for the sun to appear after the rainstorm. He was waiting patiently while imagining a race between two rain droplets.

Innocence

The child's mind was full of purity and imagination since he named the two rain drops as " James" and " John".

Reference

https://poemanalysis.com/alan-alexander-milne/waiting-at-the-window/