Read "Atalanta in Camden-Town" by Lewis Carroll online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
/ Ay, 'twas here, on this spot, / In that summer of yore, / Atalanta did not / Vote my presence a bore, / Nor reply to my tenderest talk "She had / heard all that nonsense before."
/ She'd the brooch I had bought / And the necklace and sash on, / And her heart, as I thought, / Was alive to my passion; / And she'd done up her hair in the style that / the Empress had brought into fashion.
/ I had been to the play / With my pearl of a Peri- / But, for all I could say, / She declared she was weary, / That "the place was so crowded and hot, and / she couldn't abide that Dundreary."
/ Then I thought "Lucky boy! / 'Tis for _you_ that she whimpers! " / And I noted with joy / Those sensational simpers: / And I said "This is scrumptious! "-a / phrase I had learned from the Devonshire shrimpers.
/ And I vowed "Twill be said / I'm a fortunate fellow, / When the breakfast is spread, / When the topers are mellow, / When the foam of the bride-cake is white, / and the fierce orange-blossoms are yellow!"
/ O that languishing yawn! / O those eloquent eyes! / I was drunk with the dawn / Of a splendid surmise- / I was stung by a look, I was slain by a tear, / by a tempest of sighs.
/ Then I whispered "I see / The sweet secret thou keepest. / And the yearning for _ME_ / That thou wistfully weepest! / And the question is ‘License or Banns? ', / though undoubtedly Banns are the cheapest."
/ "Be my Hero," said I, / "And let _me_ be Leander! " / But I lost her reply- / Something ending with "gander"- / For the omnibus rattled so loud that no / mortal could quite understand her.