'Three Voices, The' by Lewis Carroll
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The First Voice
He trilled a carol fresh and free,
He laughed aloud for very glee:
There came a breeze from off the sea:
It passed athwart the glooming flat -
It fanned his forehead as he sat -
It lightly bore away his hat,
All to the feet of one who stood
Like maid enchanted in a wood,
Frowning as darkly as she could.
With huge umbrella, lank and brown,
Unerringly she pinned it down,
Right through the centre of the crown.
Then, with an aspect cold and grim,
Regardless of its battered rim,
She took it up and gave it him.
A while like one in dreams he stood,
Then faltered forth his gratitude
In words just short of being rude:
For it had lost its shape and shine,
And it had cost him four-and-nine,
And he was going out to dine.
"To dine!" she sneered in acid tone.
"To bend thy being to a bone
Clothed in a radiance not its own!"
The tear-drop trickled to his chin:
There was a meaning in her grin
That made him feel on fire within.
"Term it not 'radiance,'" said he:
"'Tis solid nutriment to me.
Dinner is Dinner: Tea is Tea."
And she "Yea so? Yet wherefore cease?
Let thy scant knowledge find increase.
Say 'Men are Men, and Geese are Geese.'"
He moaned: he knew not what to say.
The thought "That I could get away!"
Strove with the thought "But I must stay.
"To dine!" she shrieked in dragon-wrath.
"To swallow wines all foam and froth!
To simper at a table-cloth!
"Say, can thy noble spirit stoop
To join the gormandising troup
Who find a solace in the soup?
"Canst thou desire or pie or puff?
Thy well-bred manners were enough,
Without such gross material stuff."
"Yet well-bred men," he faintly said,
"Are not willing to be fed:
Nor are they well without the bread."
Her visage scorched him ere she spoke:
"There are," she said, "a kind of folk
Who have no horror of a joke.
"Such wretches live: they take their share
Of common earth and common air:
We come across them here and there:
"We grant them - there is no escape -
A sort of semi-human shape
Suggestive of the man-like Ape."
"In all such theories," said he,
"One fixed exception there must be.
That is, the Present Company."
Baffled, she gave a wolfish bark:
He, aiming blindly in the dark,
With random shaft had pierced the mark.
She felt that her defeat was plain,
Yet madly strove with might and main
To get the upper hand again.
Fixing her eyes upon the beach,
As though unconscious of his speech,
She said "Each gives to more than each."
He could not answer yea or nay:
He faltered "Gifts may pass away."
Yet knew not what he meant to say.
"If that be so," she straight replied,
"Each heart with each doth coincide.
What boots it? For the world is wide."
"The world is but a Thought," said he:
"The vast unfathomable sea
Is but a Notion - unto me."
And darkly fell her answer dread
Upon his unresisting head,
Like half a hundredweight of lead.
"The Good and Great must ever shun
That reckless and abandoned one
Who stoops to perpetrate a pun.
"The man that smokes - that reads the TIMES -
That goes to Christmas Pantomimes -
Is capable of ANY crimes!"
He felt it was his turn to speak,
And, with a shamed and crimson cheek,
Moaned "This is harder than Bezique!"
But when she asked him "Wherefore so?"
He felt his very whiskers glow,
And frankly owned "I do not know."
While, like broad waves of golden grain,
Or sunlit hues on cloistered pane,
His colour came and went again.
Pitying his obvious distress,
Yet with a tinge of bitterness,
She said "The More exceeds the Less."
"A truth of such undoubted weight,"
He urged, "and so extreme in date,
It were superfluous to state."
Roused into sudden passion, she
In tone of cold malignity:
"To others, yea: but not to thee."
But when she saw him quail and quake,
And when he urged "For pity's sake!"
Once more in gentle tones she spake.
"Thought in the mind doth still abide
That is by Intellect supplied,
And within that Idea doth hide:
"And he, that yearns the truth to know,
Still further inwardly may go,
And find Idea from Notion flow:
"And thus the chain, that sages sought,
Is to a glorious circle wrought,
For Notion hath its source in Thought."
So passed they on with even pace:
Yet gradually one might trace
A shadow growing on his face.
The Second Voice
THEY walked beside the wave-worn beach;
Her tongue was very apt to teach,
And now and then he did beseech
She would abate her dulcet tone,
Because the talk was all her own,
And he was dull as any drone.
She urged "No cheese is made of chalk":
And ceaseless flowed her dreary talk,
Tuned to the footfall of a walk.
Her voice was very full and rich,
And, when at length she asked him "Which?"
It mounted to its highest pitch.
He a bewildered answer gave,
Drowned in the sullen moaning wave,
Lost in the echoes of the cave.
He answered her he knew not what:
Like shaft from bow at random shot,
He spoke, but she regarded not.
She waited not for his reply,
But with a downward leaden eye
Went on as if he were not by
Sound argument and grave defence,
Strange questions raised on "Why?" and "Whence?"
And wildly tangled evidence.
When he, with racked and whirling brain,
Feebly implored her to explain,
She simply said it all again.
Wrenched with an agony intense,
He spake, neglecting Sound and Sense,
And careless of all consequence:
"Mind - I believe - is Essence - Ent -
Abstract - that is - an Accident -
Which we - that is to say - I meant - "
When, with quick breath and cheeks all flushed,
At length his speech was somewhat hushed,
She looked at him, and he was crushed.
It needed not her calm reply:
She fixed him with a stony eye,
And he could neither fight nor fly.
While she dissected, word by word,
His speech, half guessed at and half heard,
As might a cat a little bird.
Then, having wholly overthrown
His views, and stripped them to the bone,
Proceeded to unfold her own.
"Shall Man be Man? And shall he miss
Of other thoughts no thought but this,
Harmonious dews of sober bliss?
"What boots it? Shall his fevered eye
Through towering nothingness descry
The grisly phantom hurry by?
"And hear dumb shrieks that fill the air;
See mouths that gape, and eyes that stare
And redden in the dusky glare?
"The meadows breathing amber light,
The darkness toppling from the height,
The feathery train of granite Night?
"Shall he, grown gray among his peers,
Through the thick curtain of his tears
Catch glimpses of his earlier years,
"And hear the sounds he knew of yore,
Old shufflings on the sanded floor,
Old knuckles tapping at the door?
"Yet still before him as he flies
One pallid form shall ever rise,
And, bodying forth in glassy eyes
"The vision of a vanished good,
Low peering through the tangled wood,
Shall freeze the current of his blood."
Still from each fact, with skill uncouth
And savage rapture, like a tooth
She wrenched some slow reluctant truth.
Till, like a silent water-mill,
When summer suns have dried the rill,
She reached a full stop, and was still.
Dead calm succeeded to the fuss,
As when the loaded omnibus
Has reached the railway terminus:
When, for the tumult of the street,
Is heard the engine's stifled beat,
The velvet tread of porters' feet.
With glance that ever sought the ground,
She moved her lips without a sound,
And every now and then she frowned.
He gazed upon the sleeping sea,
And joyed in its tranquillity,
And in that silence dead, but she
To muse a little space did seem,
Then, like the echo of a dream,
Harked back upon her threadbare theme.
Still an attentive ear he lent
But could not fathom what she meant:
She was not deep, nor eloquent.
He marked the ripple on the sand:
The even swaying of her hand
Was all that he could understand.
He saw in dreams a drawing-room,
Where thirteen wretches sat in gloom,
Waiting - he thought he knew for whom:
He saw them drooping here and there,
Each feebly huddled on a chair,
In attitudes of blank despair:
Oysters were not more mute than they,
For all their brains were pumped away,
And they had nothing more to say -
Save one, who groaned "Three hours are gone!"
Who shrieked "We'll wait no longer, John!
Tell them to set the dinner on!"
The vision passed: the ghosts were fled:
He saw once more that woman dread:
He heard once more the words she said.
He left her, and he turned aside:
He sat and watched the coming tide
Across the shores so newly dried.
He wondered at the waters clear,
The breeze that whispered in his ear,
The billows heaving far and near,
And why he had so long preferred
To hang upon her every word:
"In truth," he said, "it was absurd."
The Third Voice
NOT long this transport held its place:
Within a little moment's space
Quick tears were raining down his face
His heart stood still, aghast with fear;
A wordless voice, nor far nor near,
He seemed to hear and not to hear.
"Tears kindle not the doubtful spark.
If so, why not? Of this remark
The bearings are profoundly dark."
"Her speech," he said, "hath caused this pain.
Easier I count it to explain
The jargon of the howling main,
"Or, stretched beside some babbling brook,
To con, with inexpressive look,
An unintelligible book."
Low spake the voice within his head,
In words imagined more than said,
Soundless as ghost's intended tread:
"If thou art duller than before,
Why quittedst thou the voice of lore?
Why not endure, expecting more?"
"Rather than that," he groaned aghast,
"I'd writhe in depths of cavern vast,
Some loathly vampire's rich repast."
"'Twere hard," it answered, "themes immense
To coop within the narrow fence
That rings THY scant intelligence."
"Not so," he urged, "nor once alone:
But there was something in her tone
That chilled me to the very bone.
"Her style was anything but clear,
And most unpleasantly severe;
Her epithets were very queer.
"And yet, so grand were her replies,
I could not choose but deem her wise;
I did not dare to criticise;
"Nor did I leave her, till she went
So deep in tangled argument
That all my powers of thought were spent."
A little whisper inly slid,
"Yet truth is truth: you know you did."
A little wink beneath the lid.
And, sickened with excess of dread,
Prone to the dust he bent his head,
And lay like one three-quarters dead
The whisper left him - like a breeze
Lost in the depths of leafy trees -
Left him by no means at his ease.
Once more he weltered in despair,
With hands, through denser-matted hair,
More tightly clenched than then they were.
When, bathed in Dawn of living red,
Majestic frowned the mountain head,
"Tell me my fault," was all he said.
When, at high Noon, the blazing sky
Scorched in his head each haggard eye,
Then keenest rose his weary cry.
And when at Eve the unpitying sun
Smiled grimly on the solemn fun,
"Alack," he sighed, "what HAVE I done?"
But saddest, darkest was the sight,
When the cold grasp of leaden Night
Dashed him to earth, and held him tight.
Tortured, unaided, and alone,
Thunders were silence to his groan,
Bagpipes sweet music to its tone:
"What? Ever thus, in dismal round,
Shall Pain and Mystery profound
Pursue me like a sleepless hound,
"With crimson-dashed and eager jaws,
Me, still in ignorance of the cause,
Unknowing what I broke of laws?"
The whisper to his ear did seem
Like echoed flow of silent stream,
Or shadow of forgotten dream,
The whisper trembling in the wind:
"Her fate with thine was intertwined,"
So spake it in his inner mind:
"Each orbed on each a baleful star:
Each proved the other's blight and bar:
Each unto each were best, most far:
"Yea, each to each was worse than foe:
Thou, a scared dullard, gibbering low,
AND SHE, AN AVALANCHE OF WOE!"
Editor 1 Interpretation
Three Voices: A Masterful Display of Carroll's Playful Genius
Lewis Carroll's "Three Voices" is a literary masterpiece that showcases his playful genius in poetry. The poem, which was first published in 1893, is a witty and humorous exploration of the human psyche, presented in three distinct voices. With its clever wordplay, subtle humor, and deep insight, "Three Voices" continues to captivate readers over a century after its publication.
Overview of Three Voices
At its core, "Three Voices" is a poem that explores the workings of the human mind, using three distinct voices to represent different aspects of the self. The first voice is that of the "First Voice," which represents the voice of reason and logic. The second voice is that of the "Second Voice," which represents the voice of emotion and passion. The third voice is that of the "Third Voice," which represents the voice of conscience and morality.
The poem is structured in three parts, with each part representing one of the three voices. In each section, the voice speaks to the other two voices, engaging in a witty and often humorous dialogue. Through this dialogue, Carroll explores the complexities of the human mind, showing how reason, emotion, and conscience interact and influence one another.
Analysis of Three Voices
One of the most striking aspects of "Three Voices" is Carroll's mastery of wordplay and wit. Throughout the poem, he uses puns, double entendres, and clever turns of phrase to create a playful and lighthearted tone. For example, in the first section, the First Voice declares that "Reason, with his sharp knife, / Cuts and carves the liver of life!" This line is both humorous and insightful, highlighting the way that reason can dissect and analyze life, but also suggesting that this approach can be brutal and unsympathetic.
Another key aspect of the poem is its exploration of the human psyche. Carroll uses the three voices to represent different parts of the self, showing how reason, emotion, and conscience interact and sometimes conflict with one another. For example, in the second section, the Second Voice declares that "Love's passionate flame / Is a something that reason can't tame." This line illustrates the way that emotion can sometimes override reason, leading to impulsive and irrational behavior.
Throughout the poem, Carroll also plays with traditional notions of morality and ethics. The Third Voice, which represents conscience and morality, is often portrayed as a stern and judgmental figure. However, in the third section of the poem, Carroll shows that even the Third Voice is subject to the complexities of the human psyche. The Third Voice declares that "I'm not what I seem, / For I'm only a part of a dream!" This line suggests that even our sense of morality and conscience is shaped by our perceptions and beliefs, rather than being an objective truth.
Interpretation of Three Voices
At its heart, "Three Voices" is a poem that invites interpretation and analysis. While the poem is full of wit and humor, it also contains deep insights into the workings of the human mind and the complexities of morality and ethics.
One possible interpretation of the poem is that it represents a struggle between reason and emotion. The First Voice, which represents reason, is often portrayed as cold and detached, while the Second Voice, which represents emotion, is passionate and impulsive. By presenting these two voices in dialogue with each other, Carroll may be suggesting that the key to a balanced and healthy psyche is to find a way to integrate reason and emotion, rather than allowing one to dominate the other.
Another interpretation of the poem is that it represents a critique of traditional morality and ethics. Throughout the poem, the Third Voice is portrayed as a stern and judgmental figure, who often clashes with the other voices. However, in the final section of the poem, Carroll suggests that even the Third Voice is subject to the same subjective biases and perceptions as the other voices. This may be interpreted as a critique of moral absolutism, suggesting that our sense of right and wrong is shaped by our cultural and personal beliefs, rather than being an objective truth.
Conclusion
In conclusion, "Three Voices" is a literary masterpiece that showcases Lewis Carroll's playful genius in poetry. Through its witty wordplay, clever turns of phrase, and deep insights into the human psyche, the poem invites readers to explore the complexities of reason, emotion, and conscience. Whether interpreted as a struggle between reason and emotion, a critique of traditional morality and ethics, or something else entirely, "Three Voices" continues to captivate readers with its humor, insight, and timeless relevance.
Editor 2 Analysis and Explanation
Poetry Three Voices, The is a classic poem written by Lewis Carroll, the renowned author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. This poem is a masterpiece of literary art that showcases Carroll's exceptional talent in creating complex and thought-provoking works of poetry. In this analysis, we will explore the themes, structure, and literary devices used in Poetry Three Voices, The.
The poem is divided into three parts, each representing a different voice. The first voice is that of a child, the second is that of a mother, and the third is that of a father. Each voice presents a different perspective on the same topic, which is the nature of life and death. The child's voice is innocent and curious, the mother's voice is nurturing and protective, and the father's voice is rational and philosophical.
The poem begins with the child's voice, which is full of wonder and curiosity. The child asks, "Where did you come from, baby dear?" This question sets the tone for the rest of the poem, as it is a question that has puzzled humans for centuries. The child's voice is innocent and pure, and it represents the beginning of life. The child's voice is also full of questions, which shows the child's desire to learn and understand the world around them.
The second voice is that of the mother, who responds to the child's question with a nurturing and protective tone. The mother's voice is full of love and tenderness, and she reassures the child that they came from her. The mother's voice represents the nurturing and protective nature of life, as she is the one who gives birth and cares for the child. The mother's voice also represents the continuation of life, as she is the one who passes on her genes and values to her child.
The third voice is that of the father, who responds to the child's question with a rational and philosophical tone. The father's voice is full of wisdom and knowledge, and he explains to the child that they came from the same place as everyone else, which is the universe. The father's voice represents the rational and philosophical nature of life, as he is the one who seeks to understand the world through reason and logic. The father's voice also represents the end of life, as he is the one who prepares the child for the inevitable reality of death.
The structure of the poem is unique, as it is divided into three parts, each representing a different voice. The poem is also written in a question-and-answer format, which creates a dialogue between the three voices. This structure allows the reader to see the different perspectives on the same topic, which is the nature of life and death. The structure also creates a sense of unity, as the three voices come together to form a cohesive whole.
The poem is full of literary devices, which add depth and complexity to the work. One of the most prominent literary devices used in the poem is repetition. The phrase "Where did you come from, baby dear?" is repeated throughout the poem, which creates a sense of continuity and unity. The repetition also emphasizes the central theme of the poem, which is the nature of life and death.
Another literary device used in the poem is imagery. The poem is full of vivid and descriptive imagery, which creates a visual representation of the different voices. For example, the child's voice is described as "innocent and clear," while the mother's voice is described as "gentle and low." The father's voice is described as "wise and deep," which creates a sense of authority and knowledge.
The poem also uses symbolism, which adds depth and meaning to the work. The baby represents the beginning of life, while the mother represents the nurturing and protective nature of life. The father represents the rational and philosophical nature of life, as he seeks to understand the world through reason and logic. The universe represents the source of life, as it is the place from which all life originates.
In conclusion, Poetry Three Voices, The is a masterpiece of literary art that showcases Lewis Carroll's exceptional talent in creating complex and thought-provoking works of poetry. The poem explores the nature of life and death through the perspectives of a child, a mother, and a father. The structure of the poem is unique, as it is divided into three parts, each representing a different voice. The poem is full of literary devices, such as repetition, imagery, and symbolism, which add depth and complexity to the work. Overall, Poetry Three Voices, The is a timeless work of poetry that continues to inspire and captivate readers to this day.
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