The (almost really) Complete Works of Lewis Carroll

Maidens! If you love the tale

Source: inscribed into a copy of The Hunting of the Snark for the three Misses Drury, 1876

“Maidens! If you love the tale,
If you love the Snark,
Need I urge you, spread the sail,
Now, while freshly blows the gale,
In your ocean-barque!

“English Maidens love renown,
Enterprise, and fuss!”
Laughingly those Maidens frown;
Laughingly, with eyes cast down;
And they answer thus:

“English Maidens fear to roam.
Much we dread the dark;
Much we dread what ills might come,
If we left our English home,
Even for a Snark!”

Lewis Carroll.
Ap. 6. 1876.