(From “The Jabberwock,”[20] June, 1888)
Our Latin books, in motley row,
Invite us to the task--
Gay Horace, stately Cicero;
Yet there’s one verb, when once we know,
No higher skill we ask:
This ranks all other lore above--
We’ve learned “amare” means “to love”!
So hour by hour, from flower to flower,
We sip the sweets of life:
Till ah! too soon the clouds arise,
And knitted brows and angry eyes
Proclaim the dawn of strife.
With half a smile and half a sigh,
“Amare! Bitter One!” we cry.
Last night we owned, with looks forlorn,
“Too well the scholar knows
There is no rose without a thorn”--
But peace is made! we sing this morn,
“No thorn without a rose!”
Our Latin lesson is complete:
We’ve learned that Love is “Bitter-sweet”!
[20] The magazine of the Girls’ Latin School, Boston, Mass. When
asked for permission to use this title, the creator of the Jabberwock
characteristically replied:
“Mr. Lewis Carroll has much pleasure in giving to the editors of the
proposed magazine permission to use the title they wish for. He finds
that the Anglo-Saxon word ‘wocer’ or ‘wocor’ signifies ‘offspring’ or
‘fruit.’ Taking ‘jabber’ in its ordinary acceptation of ‘excited and
voluble discussion,’ this would give the meaning of ‘the result of much
excited discussion.’ Whether this phrase will have any application
to the projected periodical, it will be for the future historian of
American literature to determine. Mr. Carroll wishes all success to the
forthcoming magazine.”