[_The Right of Translation and
Reproduction
is Reserved.
Lewis Carroll
net
Title: The Hunting of the Snark
an Agony, in Eight Fits
Author: Lewis Carroll
Illustrator: Henry Holiday
Release Date: September 1, 2009 [EBook #29888]
Language: English
Character set encoding: UTF-8
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HUNTING OF THE SNARK ***
Produced by Louise Hope. (This file was produced from
images generously made available by The Internet Archive:
American Libraries)
[This e-text comes in three forms: Unicode (UTF-8), Latin-1 and ASCII.
Use the one that works best on your text reader.
--If apostrophes and quotation marks are "curly" or angled, you have
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[Cover:
THE
HUNTING
OF THE
SNARK]
AN EASTER GREETING
to
EVERY CHILD WHO LOVES
"+Alice+. "
* * * * *
+The Hunting of the Snark. +
* * * * *
THE HUNTING
OF THE SNARK
+an Agony,
in Eight Fits. +
By
LEWIS CARROLL
Author of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland,"
and "Through the Looking-Glass. "
_WITH NINE ILLUSTRATIONS_
by
HENRY HOLIDAY
+London+:
MACMILLAN AND CO.
1876.
[_The Right of Translation and Reproduction is Reserved. _]
London:
R. Clay, Sons, and Taylor, Printers,
Bread Street Hill.
+Inscribed to a dear Child:
in memory of golden summer hours
and whispers of a summer sea. +
Girt with a boyish garb for boyish task,
Eager she wields her spade: yet loves as well
Rest on a friendly knee, intent to ask
The tale he loves to tell.
Rude spirits of the seething outer strife,
Unmeet to read her pure and simple spright,
Deem, if you list, such hours a waste of life,
Empty of all delight!
Chat on, sweet Maid, and rescue from annoy
Hearts that by wiser talk are unbeguiled.
Ah, happy he who owns that tenderest joy,
The heart-love of a child!
Away, fond thoughts, and vex my soul no more!
Work claims my wakeful nights, my busy days--
Albeit bright memories of that sunlit shore
Yet haunt my dreaming gaze!
PREFACE.
If--and the thing is wildly possible--the charge of writing nonsense
were ever brought against the author of this brief but instructive poem,
it would be based, I feel convinced, on the line (in p. 18)
"Then the bowsprit got mixed with the rudder sometimes. "
In view of this painful possibility, I will not (as I might) appeal
indignantly to my other writings as a proof that I am incapable of such
a deed: I will not (as I might) point to the strong moral purpose of
this poem itself, to the arithmetical principles so cautiously
inculcated in it, or to its noble teachings in Natural History--I will
take the more prosaic course of simply explaining how it happened.
The Bellman, who was almost morbidly sensitive about appearances, used
to have the bowsprit unshipped once or twice a week to be revarnished,
and it more than once happened, when the time came for replacing it,
that no one on board could remember which end of the ship it belonged
to. They knew it was not of the slightest use to appeal to the Bellman
about it--he would only refer to his Naval Code, and read out in
pathetic tones Admiralty Instructions which none of them had ever been
able to understand--so it generally ended in its being fastened on,
anyhow, across the rudder.
Title: The Hunting of the Snark
an Agony, in Eight Fits
Author: Lewis Carroll
Illustrator: Henry Holiday
Release Date: September 1, 2009 [EBook #29888]
Language: English
Character set encoding: UTF-8
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HUNTING OF THE SNARK ***
Produced by Louise Hope. (This file was produced from
images generously made available by The Internet Archive:
American Libraries)
[This e-text comes in three forms: Unicode (UTF-8), Latin-1 and ASCII.
Use the one that works best on your text reader.
--If apostrophes and quotation marks are "curly" or angled, you have
the UTF-8 version (best). If any part of this paragraph displays as
garbage, try changing your text reader's "character set" or "file
encoding". If that doesn't work, proceed to:
--In the Latin-1 version, "ae" is a single letter but apostrophes and
quotation marks will be straight ("typewriter" form). Again, if you
see any garbage in this paragraph and can't get it to display
properly, use:
--The ASCII-7 or rock-bottom version. All necessary text will still be
there; it just won't be as pretty.
Text printed in blackletter ("Gothic") type is shown between +marks+. ]
[Cover:
THE
HUNTING
OF THE
SNARK]
AN EASTER GREETING
to
EVERY CHILD WHO LOVES
"+Alice+. "
* * * * *
+The Hunting of the Snark. +
* * * * *
THE HUNTING
OF THE SNARK
+an Agony,
in Eight Fits. +
By
LEWIS CARROLL
Author of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland,"
and "Through the Looking-Glass. "
_WITH NINE ILLUSTRATIONS_
by
HENRY HOLIDAY
+London+:
MACMILLAN AND CO.
1876.
[_The Right of Translation and Reproduction is Reserved. _]
London:
R. Clay, Sons, and Taylor, Printers,
Bread Street Hill.
+Inscribed to a dear Child:
in memory of golden summer hours
and whispers of a summer sea. +
Girt with a boyish garb for boyish task,
Eager she wields her spade: yet loves as well
Rest on a friendly knee, intent to ask
The tale he loves to tell.
Rude spirits of the seething outer strife,
Unmeet to read her pure and simple spright,
Deem, if you list, such hours a waste of life,
Empty of all delight!
Chat on, sweet Maid, and rescue from annoy
Hearts that by wiser talk are unbeguiled.
Ah, happy he who owns that tenderest joy,
The heart-love of a child!
Away, fond thoughts, and vex my soul no more!
Work claims my wakeful nights, my busy days--
Albeit bright memories of that sunlit shore
Yet haunt my dreaming gaze!
PREFACE.
If--and the thing is wildly possible--the charge of writing nonsense
were ever brought against the author of this brief but instructive poem,
it would be based, I feel convinced, on the line (in p. 18)
"Then the bowsprit got mixed with the rudder sometimes. "
In view of this painful possibility, I will not (as I might) appeal
indignantly to my other writings as a proof that I am incapable of such
a deed: I will not (as I might) point to the strong moral purpose of
this poem itself, to the arithmetical principles so cautiously
inculcated in it, or to its noble teachings in Natural History--I will
take the more prosaic course of simply explaining how it happened.
The Bellman, who was almost morbidly sensitive about appearances, used
to have the bowsprit unshipped once or twice a week to be revarnished,
and it more than once happened, when the time came for replacing it,
that no one on board could remember which end of the ship it belonged
to. They knew it was not of the slightest use to appeal to the Bellman
about it--he would only refer to his Naval Code, and read out in
pathetic tones Admiralty Instructions which none of them had ever been
able to understand--so it generally ended in its being fastened on,
anyhow, across the rudder.
