The (almost really) Complete Works of Lewis Carroll

Melodies

Source: Useful and Instructive Poetry

The image is divided into four parts: 1. A man making holes in his face with a needle, then dressed as beadle. 2. A man with a long pointy hat. 3. A short man with a hod on the head. 4. A woman sleeping in the rain, then sitting at a table with the man from 3, only he is eating.

I

There was an old farmer of Readall,
Who made holes in his face with a needle,
They went far deeper in
Than to pierce through the skin,
And yet strange to say he was made beadle.

II

There was an eccentric old draper,
Who wore a hat made of brown paper,
It went up to a point,
Yet it looked out of joint,
The cause of which he said was “vapour.”

III

There was once a young man of Oporta,
Who daily got shorter and shorter,
The reason he said
Was the hod on his head,
Which was filled with the heaviest mortar.

His sister, named Lucy O’Finner,
Grew constantly thinner and thinner;
The reason was plain,
She slept out in the rain,
And was never allowed any dinner.