From his shoulder HiawathaTook the camera of rosewood,Made of sliding, folding rosewood;Neatly put it all together.In its case it lay compactly,Folded into nearly nothing; But he opened out the hinges,Pushed and pulled the joints and hinges,Till it looked all squares and oblongs,Like a complicated figureIn the Second Book of Euclid. This he perched upon a […]

I have a horse–a ryghte good horse –Ne doe Y envye thoseWho scoure ye playne yn headye courseTyll soddayne on theyre noseThey lyghte wyth unexpected forceYt ys–a horse of clothes. I have a saddel–“Say’st thou soe?Wyth styrruppes, Knyghte, to boote?”I sayde not that–I answere “Noe” –Yt lacketh such, I woote:Yt ys a mutton-saddel, loe!Parte of […]

There are certain things–as, a spider, a ghost,The income-tax, gout, an umbrella for three –That I hate, but the thing that I hate the mostIs a thing they call the Sea. Pour some salt water over the floor –Ugly I’m sure you’ll allow it to be:Suppose it extended a mile or more,THAT’S very like the […]

Lady Clara Vere de VereWas eight years old, she said:Every ringlet, lightly shaken, ran itself in golden thread. She took her little porringer:Of me she shall not win renown:For the baseness of its nature shall have strength to drag herdown. “Sisters and brothers, little Maid?There stands the Inspector at thy door:Like a dog, he hunts […]

When on the sandy shore I sit,Beside the salt sea-wave,And fall into a weeping fitBecause I dare not shave –A little whisper at my earEnquires the reason of my fear. I answer “If that ruffian JonesShould recognise me here,He’d bellow out my name in tonesOffensive to the ear:He chaffs me so on being stout(A thing […]

“How shall I be a poet?How shall I write in rhyme?You told me once ‘the very wishPartook of the sublime.’Then tell me how! Don’t put me offWith your ‘another time’!” The old man smiled to see him,To hear his sudden sally;He liked the lad to speak his mindEnthusiastically;And thought “There’s no hum-drum in him,Nor any […]

Five little girls, of Five, Four, Three, Two, One:Rolling on the hearthrug, full of tricks and fun. Five rosy girls, in years from Ten to Six:Sitting down to lessons–no more time for tricks. Five growing girls, from Fifteen to Eleven:Music, Drawing, Languages, and food enough for seven! Five winsome girls, from Twenty to Sixteen:Each young […]

[Why is it that Poetry has never yet been subjected to that process of Dilution which has proved so advantageous to her sister-art Music? The Diluter gives us first a few notes of some well-known Air, then a dozen bars of his own, then a few more notes of the Air, and so on alternately: […]

The First Voice He trilled a carol fresh and free,He laughed aloud for very glee:There came a breeze from off the sea: It passed athwart the glooming flat –It fanned his forehead as he sat –It lightly bore away his hat, All to the feet of one who stoodLike maid enchanted in a wood,Frowning as […]

[Sent to a friend who had complained that I was glad enough to see him when he came, but didn’t seem to miss him if he stayed away.] And cannot pleasures, while they last,Be actual unless, when past,They leave us shuddering and aghast,With anguish smarting?And cannot friends be firm and fast,And yet bear parting? And […]

With saddest music all day longShe soothed her secret sorrow:At night she sighed “I fear ’twas wrongSuch cheerful words to borrow.Dearest, a sweeter, sadder songI’ll sing to thee to-morrow.” I thanked her, but I could not sayThat I was glad to hear it:I left the house at break of day,And did not venture near itTill […]

[Affectionately dedicated to all “original researchers” who pant for “endowment.”] Blow, blow your trumpets till they crack,Ye little men of little souls!And bid them huddle at your back –Gold-sucking leeches, shoals on shoals! Fill all the air with hungry wails –“Reward us, ere we think or write!Without your Gold mere Knowledge failsTo sate the swinish […]

[These consist of two Double Acrostics and two Charades. No. I. was written at the request of some young friends, who had gone to a ball at an Oxford Commemoration–and also as a specimen of what might be done by making the Double Acrostic A CONNECTED POEM instead of what it has hitherto been, a […]

The ladye she stood at her lattice high,Wi’ her doggie at her feet;Thorough the lattice she can spyThe passers in the street, “There’s one that standeth at the door,And tirleth at the pin:Now speak and say, my popinjay,If I sall let him in.” Then up and spake the popinjayThat flew abune her head:“Gae let him […]

Ay, ’twas here, on this spot,In that summer of yore,Atalanta did notVote my presence a bore,Nor reply to my tenderest talk “She hadheard all that nonsense before.” She’d the brooch I had boughtAnd the necklace and sash on,And her heart, as I thought,Was alive to my passion;And she’d done up her hair in the style […]

ALICE’S ADVENTURES UNDER GROUND BEING A FACSIMILE OF THE ORIGINAL MS. BOOK AFTERWARDS DEVELOPED INTO “ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND” CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. DOWN THE RABBIT-HOLE. THE POOL OF TEARS II. A LONG TALE. THE RABBIT SENDS IN A LITTLE BILL III. ADVICE FROM A CATERPILLAR IV. THE QUEEN’S CROQUET-GROUND. THE MOCK TURTLE’S STORY. THE LOBSTER […]