Read "Tèma Con Variaziòni" by Lewis Carroll online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
[Why is it that Poetry has never yet been subjected to that process of / Dilution which has proved so advantageous to her sister-art Music? The / Diluter gives us first a few notes of some well-known Air, then a dozen / bars of his own, then a few more notes of the Air, and so on alternately: / thus saving the listener, if not from all risk of recognising the melody / at all, at least from the too-exciting transports which it might produce / in a more concentrated form. The process is termed "setting" by / Composers, and any one, that has ever experienced the emotion of being / unexpectedly set down in a heap of mortar, will recognise the / truthfulness of this happy phrase.
For truly, just as the genuine Epicure lingers lovingly over a morsel of / supreme Venison-whose every fibre seems to murmur "Excelsior! "-yet / swallows, ere returning to the toothsome dainty, great mouthfuls of / oatmeal-porridge and winkles: and just as the perfect Connoisseur in / Claret permits himself but one delicate sip, and then tosses off a pint / or more of boarding-school beer: so also-
/ I NEVER loved a dear Gazelle- / _Nor anything that cost me much_: / _High prices profit those who sell_, / _But why should I be fond of such_?
/ To glad me with his soft black eye / _My son comes trotting home from school_; / _He's had a fight but can't tell why_- / _He always was a little fool_!
/ But, when he came to know me well, / _He kicked me out_, _her testy Sire_: / _And when I stained my hair_, _that Belle_ / _Might note the change_, _and thus admire_
/ And love me, it was sure to dye / _A muddy green or staring blue_: / _Whilst one might trace_, _with half an eye_, / _The still triumphant carrot through_.