The (almost really) Complete Works of Lewis Carroll

The Lyceum

Source: verses on a torn paper for Agnes Hull to commemorate a visit to the Lyceum, March 25, 1881

Parody on The Miller’s Daughter by Alfred Lord Tennyson

It is the lawyer’s daugh…
And she is grown so dear, so d…
She costs me, in one evening,
The income of a year!
“You ca’n’t have children’s love,” she cr…
“Unless you choose to fee ’em!”
“And what’s your fee, Child?” I replied.
She simply said “…

We saw The Cup. I hoped she’d say,
“I’m grateful to you—very.”
She murmured, as she turned aw…
“That lovely …
“Compared with her, the rest,” she cri…
“Are just like two or three um-
-berellas standing side by side!
Oh, gem of th…

We saw Two Brothers: I confess
To me they seemed one man.
“Now which is which, Child? Can you …
She cried, “A-course I can!”
Bad puns like this I always dread,
And am resolved to flee ’em:
And so I left her there, & fl…
She lives at …

In the same letter there are also the following short verses:

How an Elderly Person took a Young Person to the Play, but could not get her away again

Two went one day
To visit the play.
One came away:
The other would stay.