Phantasmagoria - Canto IV

Phantasmagoria by Lewis Carroll - Canto IV--Hys Nouryture

"Oh, when I was a little Ghost,
A merry time had we!
Each seated on his favourite post,
We chumped and chawed the buttered toast
They gave us for our tea."

"That story is in print!" I cried.
"Don't say it's not, because
It's known as well as Bradshaw's Guide!"
(The Ghost uneasily replied
He hardly thought it was).

Ballad of Reading Goal - Part VI

Ballad of Reading Goal - Part VI (end) - by Oscar Wilde

 

In Reading gaol by Reading town

There is a pit of shame,

And in it lies a wretched man

Eaten by teeth of flame,

In a burning winding-sheet he lies,

And his grave has got no name.

And there, till Christ call forth the dead,

In silence let him lie:

No need to waste the foolish tear,

Or heave the windy sigh:

The man had killed the thing he loved,

And so he had to die.

And all men kill the thing they love,

By all let this be heard,

Some do it with a bitter look,

Some with a flattering word,

The coward does it with a kiss,

The brave man with a sword!

Phantasmagoria - Canto III

Phantasmagoria by Lewis Carroll - CANTO III - Scarmoges
 

"And did you really walk," said I,
"On such a wretched night?
I always fancied Ghosts could fly -
If not exactly in the sky,
Yet at a fairish height."

"It's very well," said he, "for Kings
To soar above the earth:
But Phantoms often find that wings -
Like many other pleasant things -
Cost more than they are worth.

Ballad of Reading Gaol - Part V

Ballad of Reading Gaol - Part V.

 

I know not whether Laws be right,

Or whether Laws be wrong;
All that we know who lie in goal
Is that the wall is strong;
And that each day is like a year,
A year whose days are long.

But this I know, that every Law

That men have made for Man,
Since first Man took his brother’s life,
And the sad world began,
But straws the wheat and saves the chaff
With a most evil fan.

My closing arguments - Part 1

My closing arguments - Part 1 - by P.K.Odendaal - 20 December 2013

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes, and ships, and sealing-wax
Of cabbages, and kings
And why the sea is boiling hot
And whether pigs have wings."

From the Walrus and the Carpenter by Lewis Carroll.

The time has come for me to conclude with my closing arguments in this trial where I have placed Great Arguments before the Great Judge. I myself and how I think and experience life have also bowed to these arguments. I have over the past six years enjoyed writing my blog articles, and I have now exhausted all the ideas which I am passionate about and it is time for me to move on. I have also enjoyed the patronage of my readers who have inspired me to consider all sides of every argument, and I hope I have been objective in giving voice to the proponents of my adversary arguments. However - I never expected to have the last word.

Ballad of Reading Gaol - Part IV

IV 

There is no chapel on the day
On which they hang a man:
The Chaplain's heart is far too sick,
Or his face is far too wan,
Or there is that written in his eyes
Which none should look upon.
 
So they kept us close till nigh on noon,
And then they rang the bell,
And the Warders with their jingling keys
Opened each listening cell,
And down the iron stair we tramped,
Each from his separate Hell.

Phantasmagoria - Canto II

CANTO II--Hys Fyve Rules

"My First--but don't suppose," he said,
"I'm setting you a riddle -
Is--if your Victim be in bed,
Don't touch the curtains at his head,
But take them in the middle,

"And wave them slowly in and out,
While drawing them asunder;
And in a minute's time, no doubt,
He'll raise his head and look about
With eyes of wrath and wonder.

Ballad of Reading Gaol - Part III

Ballad of Reading Gaol - Part III

In Debtors' Yard the stones are hard,
And the dripping wall is high,
So it was there he took the air
Beneath the leaden sky,
And by each side a Warder walked,
For fear the man might die.
 
Or else he sat with those who watched
His anguish night and day;
Who watched him when he rose to weep,
And when he crouched to pray;
Who watched him lest himself should rob
Their scaffold of its prey.

The Ballad of Reading Goal - Part II

The Ballad of Reading Goal - Part II  

Six weeks our guardsman walked the yard,
In the suit of shabby grey:
His cricket cap was on his head,
And his step seemed light and gay, 
But I never saw a man who looked
So wistfully at the day.
 
I never saw a man who looked
With such a wistful eye 
Upon that little tent of blue
Which prisoners call the sky,
And at every wandering cloud that trailed
Its ravelled fleeces by.

Phantasmagoria - Canto I - by Lewis Carroll

Phantasmagoria by Lewis Carroll

Canto I--The Trystyng

One winter night, at half-past nine,
Cold, tired, and cross, and muddy,
I had come home, too late to dine,
And supper, with cigars and wine,
Was waiting in the study.

There was a strangeness in the room,
And Something white and wavy
Was standing near me in the gloom -
I took it for the carpet-broom
Left by that careless slavey.