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by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832 - 1898), as Lewis Carroll

'Tis the voice of the Lobster: I heard...
Language: English 
'Tis the voice of the Lobster: I heard him declare
"You have baked me too brown, I must sugar my hair."
As a duck with its eyelids, so he with his nose
Trims his belt and his buttons, and turns out his toes.
When the sands are all dry, he is gay as a lark,
And will talk in contemptuous tones of the Shark;
But, when the tide rises and sharks are around,
His voice has a timid and tremulous sound.

I passed by his garden, and marked, with one eye,
How the Owl and the Panther were sharing a pie:
The Panther took pie-crust, and gravy, and meat,
While the Owl had the dish as its share of the treat.
When the pie was all finished, the Owl, as a boon,
Was kindly permitted to pocket the spoon;
While the Panther received knife and fork with a growl,
And concluded the banquet by --- 1

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
1 Note: Alice's recitation is interrupted by the Mock Turtle, who calls the poem "the most confusing thing I ever heard"; in Nicholson's setting, the final words are added in a whisper: "eating the owl". Further changes may exist not noted above.

Text Authorship:

  • by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832 - 1898), as Lewis Carroll, no title, appears in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, London, Macmillan ; chapter 10, first published 1865 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by George Nicholson (b. 1949), "I passed by his garden", 1984 [ soprano and piano ], from Peripheral Visions, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
  • by David Evan Thomas (b. 1958), "'Tis the voice of the Lobster", published 2004, first performed 2004 [ SATB chorus, piano, and incidental percussion ], from Earthly Delights, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • FRE French (Français) (Henri Bué) , no title


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2010-01-25
Line count: 16
Word count: 155

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