Text 79

SHE SEES ANOTHER

DOOR OPENING

My Fortitude is all awry

To sit upon this chair

And, idly lifting up my eye,

To glimpse a door ajar there.

Through that door could come what bother

In what undreamed of pelts

A cat, a dog, or God the Father,

Or − gulp − somebody else!

A SHOT AT RANDOM

I shot an arrow into the air.

I don't know how it fell or where;

But strangely enough, at my journey's end,

I found it again in the neck of my friend.

Perhaps, one of the most famous parodists of Victorian England was Lewis Carroll. Owing to the tremendous success of his Alice books, Carroll's parodies – especially those found in the book – have become the classics of the genre ever since.

For instance, on one occasion, when things go maddening at a Mad Teaparty, Alice has to listen to the Hatter's performance who sings a very famous poem turned cradle song. The poem written by Jane Taylor (1783—1824) is well-known:

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,

How I wonder what you are!

Up above the world so high,

Like a diamond in the sky...

What the Hatter has to sing at the great concert given by the Queen of Hearts is something like this: Twinkle, twinkle, little bat!/ How I wonder what you're at! Curiously, Reverend Charles Dodgson spared no effort producing a savage parody. Carroll wrote more parodies outside Alice. The following tune must be familiar (Text 80). Sounds like an Indian tom-tom, doesn't it?