Lewis Carroll: Frasi in inglese (pagina 9)

“All in the golden afternoon
Full leisurely we glide;
For both our oars, with little skill,
By little arms are plied,
While little hands make vain pretence
Our wanderings to guide.”

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Lewis Carroll

Origine: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

“To the Looking-Glass world it was Alice that said 'I've a sceptre in hand, I've a crown on my head. Let the Looking-Glass creatures, whatever they be, Come and dine with the Red Queen, the White Queen, and me.”

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Lewis Carroll

Origine: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

“but Alice had got so much into the way of expecting nothing but out-of-the-way things to happen, that it seemed quite dull and stupid for life to go on in the common way.”

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Lewis Carroll libro Le avventure di Alice nel Paese delle Meraviglie

Variante: Alice had got so much into the way of expecting nothing but out-of-the-way things to happen, that it seemed quite dull and stupid for life to go on in the common way.
Origine: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

“The Red Queen shook her head. "You may call it 'nonsense' if you like," she said, "but I've heard nonsense, compared with which that would be as sensible as a dictionary!”

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Lewis Carroll libro Through the Looking-Glass

Origine: Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There

“It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards.”

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Lewis Carroll

Variante: It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards,' says the White Queen to Alice.
Origine: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

“if you drink much from a bottle marked 'poison,' it is almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or later.”

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Lewis Carroll libro Le avventure di Alice nel Paese delle Meraviglie

Variante: If you drink much from a bottle marked 'poison' it is certain to disagree with you sooner or later.
Origine: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

“You've lost your muchness.”

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Lewis Carroll

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

“p>Finally my Hiawatha
Tumbled all the tribe together,
('Grouped' is not the right expression),
And, as happy chance would have it
Did at last obtain a picture
Where the faces all succeeded:
Each came out a perfect likeness.Then they joined and all abused it,
Unrestrainedly abused it,
As the worst and ugliest picture
They could possibly have dreamed of.
'Giving one such strange expressions -
Sullen, stupid, pert expressions.
Really any one would take us
(Any one that did not know us)
For the most unpleasant people!”

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Lewis Carroll

(Hiawatha seemed to think so,
Seemed to think it not unlikely.)</p>
Hiawatha's Photographing
Rhyme? and Reason? (1883)

“Not as in rest she bowed,
But large hot tears were coursing down her cheek.
And her low-panted sobs broke awefully
Upon the sleeping echoes of the night.”

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Lewis Carroll Three Sunsets and Other Poems

The Path of Roses (1856)
Three Sunsets and Other Poems (1898)

“In her eyes is the living Hght
Of a wanderer to earth
From a far celestial height:
Summers five are all the span —
Summers five since Time began
To veil in mists of human night
A shining angel-birth.

Does an angel look from her eyes?
Will she suddenly spring away,
And soar to her home in the skies?
Beatrice! Blessing and blessed to be!”

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Lewis Carroll Three Sunsets and Other Poems

Beatrice (1862), st. 1
Three Sunsets and Other Poems (1898)

“My father was a Brownie, Sir;
My mother was a Fairy.
The notion had occurred to her,
The children would be happier,
If they were taught to vary.

The notion soon became a craze;
And, when it once began, she
Brought us all out in different ways -
One was a Pixy, two were Fays,
Another was a Banshee.”

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Lewis Carroll

Canto 4
Phantasmagoria (1869)

“Put the date in full. It is another aggravating thing, when you wish, years afterwards, to arrange a series of letters, to find them dated "Feb. 17", "Aug. 2", without any year to guide you as to which comes first. And never, never, dear Madam (N. B. this remark is addressed to ladies only: no man would ever do such a thing), put "Wednesday", simply, as the date!”

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Lewis Carroll

Eight or Nine Wise Words About Letter-Writing (1890)

“There is an insect that people avoid
(Whence is derived the verb 'to flee').
Where have you been by it most annoyed?
In lodgings by the Sea.”

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Lewis Carroll

A Sea Dirge
Rhyme? and Reason? (1883)

“Then proudly smiled that old man
To see the eager lad
Rush madly for his pen and ink
And for his blotting-pad –
But, when he thought of publishing,
His face grew stern and sad.”

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Lewis Carroll

Poeta Fit, Non Nascitur, last stanza
Rhyme? and Reason? (1883)

“I charm in vain; for never again,
All keenly as my glance I bend,
Will Memory, goddess coy,
Embody for my joy
Departed days, nor let me gaze
On thee, my fairy friend!”

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Lewis Carroll

"To my Child-friend" in The Game Of Logic (1886)

“The White Knight must not have whiskers; he must not be made to look old.”

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Lewis Carroll

Instructions to Sir John Tenniel c.1864; quoted in Stuart Dodgson Collingwood, The Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll (1898) p. 130

“"Our Second Experiment", the Professor announced, as Bruno returned to his place, still thoughtfully rubbing his elbows, "is the production of that seldom-seen-but-greatly-to-be-admired phenomenon, Black Light! You have seen White Light, Red Light, Green Light, and so on: but never, till this wonderful day, have any eyes but mine seen Black Light! This box", carefully lifting it upon the table, and covering it with a heap of blankets, "is quite full of it. The way I made it was this - I took a lighted candle into a dark cupboard and shut the door. Of course the cupboard was then full of Yellow Light. Then I took a bottle of Black ink, and poured it over the candle: and, to my delight, every atom of the Yellow Light turned Black! That was indeed the proudest moment of my life! Then I filled a box with it. And now - would anyone like to get under the blankets and see it?"Dead silence followed this appeal: but at last Bruno said "I'll get under, if it won't jingle my elbows."Satisfied on this point, Bruno crawled under the blankets, and, after a minute or two, crawled out again, very hot and dusty, and with his hair in the wildest confusion."What did you see in the box?" Sylvie eagerly enquired."I saw nuffin!" Bruno sadly replied. "It were too dark!""He has described the appearance of the thing exactly!"”

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Lewis Carroll libro Sylvie and Bruno

the Professor exclaimed with enthusiasm. "Black Light, and Nothing, look so extremely alike, at first sight, that I don't wonder he failed to distinguish them! We will now proceed to the Third Experiment."</p>
Origine: Sylvie and Bruno Concluded (1893), Chapter 21: The Professor's Lecture

“He thought he saw an Elephant,
That practised on a fife:
He looked again, and found it was
A letter from his wife.
'At length I realise,' he said,
'The bitterness of Life!”

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Lewis Carroll libro Sylvie and Bruno

Variante: He thought he saw a Banker's Clerk
Descending from the bus:
He looked again, and found it was
A Hippopotamus:
'If this should stay to dine,' he said,
'There won't be much for us!
Origine: Sylvie and Bruno (1889), Chapter 5 : A Beggar's Palace

“Those locks of jet are turned to gray,
And she is strange and far away
That might have been mine own to-day —

That might have been mine own, my dear,
Through many and many a happy year —
That might have sat beside me here.”

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Lewis Carroll Three Sunsets and Other Poems

Faces in the Fire (1860), st. 8 & 9
Three Sunsets and Other Poems (1898)

“The day was wet, the rain fell souse
Like jars of strawberry jam, a
sound was heard in the old henhouse,
A beating of a hammer.”

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Lewis Carroll

Lays of Sorrow No.1, opening lines
The Rectory Umbrella