Three Sunsets and Other Poems   By: Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)

[Illustration]

THREE SUNSETS AND OTHER POEMS

BY LEWIS CARROLL

WITH TWELVE FAIRY FANCIES

BY E. GERTRUDE THOMSON

PRICE FOUR SHILLINGS NET

LONDON MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1898

All Rights Reserved

RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BUNGAY.

PREFACE.

Nearly the whole of this volume is a reprint of the serious portion of Phantasmagoria and other Poems , which was first published in 1869 and has long been out of print. "The Path of Roses" was written soon after the Crimean War, when the name of Florence Nightingale had already become a household word. "Only a Woman's Hair" was suggested by a circumstance mentioned in The Life of Dean Swift , viz., that, after his death, a small packet was found among his papers, containing a single lock of hair and inscribed with those words. "After Three Days" was written after seeing Holman Hunt's picture, The Finding of Christ in the Temple .

The two poems, "Far Away" and "A Song of Love", are reprinted from Sylvie and Bruno and Sylvie and Bruno Concluded , books whose high price (made necessary by the great cost of production) has, I fear, put them out of the reach of most of my readers. "A Lesson in Latin" is reprinted from The Jabberwock , a Magazine got up among the Members of "The Girls' Latin School, Boston, U.S.A." The only poems, here printed for the first time, are put together under the title of "Puck Lost and Found," having been inscribed in two books Fairies , a poem by Allingham, illustrated by Miss E. Gertrude Thomson, and Merry Elves , a story book, by whom written I do not know, illustrated by C. O. Murray which were presented to a little girl and boy, as a sort of memento of a visit paid by them to the author one day, on which occasion he taught them the pastime dear to the hearts of children of folding paper "pistols," which can be made to imitate, fairly well, the noise of a real one.

Jan., 1898.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

THREE SUNSETS 1

THE PATH OF ROSES 8

THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH 15

SOLITUDE 23

FAR AWAY 26

BEATRICE 29

STOLEN WATERS 34

THE WILLOW TREE 42

ONLY A WOMAN'S HAIR 44

THE SAILOR'S WIFE 48

AFTER THREE DAYS 53

FACES IN THE FIRE 59

A LESSON IN LATIN 63

PUCK LOST AND FOUND 64

A SONG OF LOVE 67

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

FAIRIES AND NAUTILUS Front.

FAIRIES IN BOAT 7

FAIRIES AND BOWER 14

SLEEPING FAIRIES 22

FAIRY RIDING ON CRAY FISH 28

FAIRIES AND SQUIRREL 33

FAIRIES AND JONQUILS 41

FAIRIES AND FROG 47

FAIRY ON MUSHROOM 52

FAIRIES RIDING ON FISH 58

FAIRY AND WASP 62

FAIRIES UNDER MUSHROOM 66

THREE SUNSETS.

He saw her once, and in the glance, A moment's glance of meeting eyes, His heart stood still in sudden trance: He trembled with a sweet surprise All in the waning light she stood, The star of perfect womanhood.

That summer eve his heart was light: With lighter step he trod the ground: And life was fairer in his sight, And music was in every sound: He blessed the world where there could be So beautiful a thing as she.