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"Lewis Carol Channing" from the graphic series "AmalgaMates" graphite pencil on illustration board by Ulysses Poe |
One is the ship,
one the ting-a-ling bell,
one the map lacking latitude lines:
'tis a sea-chart from hell,
lacking tropics as well.
"Tried 'n' true," ev'ry crewman opines.
Two are the policies
bought by the Baker
to augment his dagger-proof coat:
number one's against fire;
number two's against hail damage.
Boom! Each a Doom Antidote.
Three totes the number
of times he (the Bellman)
recites some slick saw to the crew:
"What I tell you three times..."
(what he tells 'em three times --
note the rhymes) "...told three times...? 'Tis true."
Four notes the number
of tongues by the Bellman
employ'd to the Baker chastise:
"I, in Hebrew, Dutch, German
and Greek, have berated you.
Must I throw dust in your eyes...?"
Five tallies marks
of all genuine Snarks:
their ambition, their lateness in rising,
their affection for bathing machines,
their reluctance to jest...
and a taste quite surprising.
Six pegs the number
of times the refrain
which commences "They sought it with thimbles..."
gets express'd. Each repeat
prompts ambiguous images,
smoke signals, figures and symbols.
Seven's the total
of coats he (the Baker)
had on as he stepp'd 'board the boat.
At least that's what Dodgson
(the amateur shutterbug Carroll)
insists that he wrote.
Eight counts the fits
in this Agony. There appear
eight portmanteaus, too, alright...?:
'jubjub,' 'frumious,' 'mimsiest,'
'uffish,' 'galumphing,' 'out-
grabe,' 'beamish,' 'bandersnatch.' (Quite!)
Nine...(count 'em: nine)...quatrains
fill Fit the Eighth (call'd
"The Vanishing" by Rev'rend Carroll).
Therein fades the Baker --
post waving his hands --
after wagging his head...at his peril.
Ten are the crew
(each initial'd with B)
who elect on this hunt to embark.
(It remains to point out:
I was never in doubt
that two Snarks did not board Noah's Ark.)
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