“They saw their injured country's woe;
The flaming town, the wasted field;
Then rushed to meet the insulting foe;
They took the spear, - but left the shield.”
While, for those who preferred a more forcible word, He had different names from these: His intimate friends called him "Candle-ends," And his enemies "Toasted-cheese."
"His form is ungainly—his intellect small—" (So the Bellman would often remark) "But his courage is perfect! And that, after all, Is the thing that one needs with a Snark."
He would joke with hænas, returning their stare With an impudent wag of the head: And he once went a walk, paw-in-paw, with a bear, "Just to keep up its spirits," he said. -Lewis Carroll, "The Hunting of the Snark"
Then the bowsprit got mixed with the rudder sometimes: A thing, as the Bellman remarked, That frequently happens in tropical climes, When a vessel is, so to speak, "snarked."
There's more wisdom and far greater aesthetic appeal in the MAD HATTER'S TEA PARTY, JABBERWOCKY, FATHER WILLAM and THE HUNTING of the SNARK than in all of SLAVOJ ZIZEK'S prolix blather. (:-o
What happens when you combine pasta and antipasta?
ReplyDeleteI give up? What happens?
ReplyDeleteGag particles
ReplyDeleteSORRY! I just don't like the mocking, "Smart Alec" attitude displayed here.
ReplyDeleteWhile, for those who preferred a more forcible word,
ReplyDeleteHe had different names from these:
His intimate friends called him "Candle-ends,"
And his enemies "Toasted-cheese."
"His form is ungainly—his intellect small—"
(So the Bellman would often remark)
"But his courage is perfect! And that, after all,
Is the thing that one needs with a Snark."
He would joke with hænas, returning their stare
With an impudent wag of the head:
And he once went a walk, paw-in-paw, with a bear,
"Just to keep up its spirits," he said.
-Lewis Carroll, "The Hunting of the Snark"
Then the bowsprit got mixed with the rudder sometimes:
ReplyDeleteA thing, as the Bellman remarked,
That frequently happens in tropical climes,
When a vessel is, so to speak, "snarked."
Our Ship of State has been "snarked"
I love Lewis Carroll.
ReplyDeleteThere's more wisdom and far greater aesthetic appeal in the MAD HATTER'S TEA PARTY, JABBERWOCKY, FATHER WILLAM and THE HUNTING of the SNARK than in all of SLAVOJ ZIZEK'S prolix blather. (:-o
ReplyDeleteA true artist can reduce the complexity to a simple parable. It was Plato's great gift.
ReplyDeleteThe Walrus and the Carpenter is Carroll's best.
ReplyDeleteI'm more of a Jabberwockian...
ReplyDeleteVorpal snickersnack, my beamish lad
ReplyDelete...exactly!
ReplyDelete