Upon the Lonely Moor

by Lewis Carroll

I met an aged, aged man
  Upon the lonely moor:
I knew I was a gentleman,
  And he was but a boor.
So I stopped and roughly questioned him,
  “Come, tell me how you live!”
But his words impressed my ear no more
  Than if it were a sieve.

He said, “I look for soap-bubbles,
  That lie among the wheat,
And bake them into mutton-pies,
  And sell them in the street.
I sell them unto men”, he said,
  “Who sail on stormy seas;
And that’s the way I get my bread--
  A trifle, if you please.”

But I was thinking of a way
  To multiply by ten,
And always, in the answer, get
  The question back again.
I did not hear a word he said,
  But kicked that old man calm,
And said, “Come, tell me how you live!”
  And pinched him in the arm.

His accents mild took up the tale:
  He said, “I go my ways,
And when I find a mountain-rill,
  I set it in a blaze.
And thence they make a stuff they call
  Rowland’s Macassar Oil;
But fourpence-halfpenny is all
  They give me for my toil.”

But I was thinking of a plan
  To paint one’s gaiters green,
So much the colour of the grass
  That they could ne’er be seen.
I gave his ear a sudden box,
  And questioned him again,
And tweaked his grey and reverend locks,
  And put him into pain.

He said, “I hunt for haddocks’ eyes
  Among the heather bright,
And work them into waistcoat-buttons
  In the silent night.
And these I do not sell for gold,
  Or coin of silver-mine,
But for a copper-halfpenny,
  And that will purchase nine.

“I sometimes dig for buttered rolls,
  Or set limed twigs for crabs;
I sometimes search the flowery knolls
  For wheels of hansom cabs.
And that’s the way” (he gave a wink)
  “I get my living here,
And very gladly will I drink
  Your Honour’s health in beer.”

I heard him then, for I had just
  Completed my design
To keep the Menai bridge from rust
  By boiling it in wine.
I duly thanked him, ere I went,
  For all his stories queer,
But chiefly for his kind intent
  To drink my health in beer.

And now if e’er by chance I put
  My fingers into glue,
Or madly squeeze a right-hand foot
  Into a left-hand shoe;
Or if a statement I aver
  Of which I am not sure,
I think of that strange wanderer
  Upon the lonely moor.

If you enjoy this, you’ll also enjoy “I’ll tell thee everything I can” from chapter 8 of Through the Looking Glass or Wordsworth’s Resolution and Independence.

Transcribed and organized into web format by Jerry Stratton.

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Jerry Stratton