Atalanta in Camden-Town Poem by Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson)

Poetry from Phantasmagoria and Other Poems.

Phantasmagoria and Other Poems by Lewis Carroll

Atalanta in Camden-Town Poem

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.”

Atalanta in Camden-Town Poem - On this spot Illustration by Arthur B. Frost

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.

Atalanta in Camden-Town Poem End

Phantasmagoria and Other Poems

Lewis Carroll – Phantasmagoria Poem, in Seven Cantos
Lewis Carroll – Echoes Poem
Lewis Carroll – A Sea Dirge Poem
Lewis Carroll – Ye Carpette Knyghte Poem
Lewis Carroll – Hiawatha’s Photographing Poem
Lewis Carroll – Melancholetta Poem
Lewis Carroll – A Valentine Poem
Lewis Carroll – The Three Voices Poem
Lewis Carroll – Tèma Con Variaziòni Poem
Lewis Carroll – A Game of Fives Poem
Lewis Carroll – Poeta fit, non nascitur Poem
Lewis Carroll – Size and Tears Poem
Lewis Carroll – Atalanta in Camden-Town Poem
Lewis Carroll – The Lang Coortin’ Poem
Lewis Carroll – Four Riddles Poem
Lewis Carroll – Fame’s Penny-Trumpet Poem