YouLyric
Sign in
Sign up for free
A-Sitting On A Gate
Share
Alice In Wonderland
What's this song about?
Generate meaning
1
I'll tell thee everything I can;
2
There's little to relate.
3
I saw an aged aged man,
4
A-sitting on agate.
5
'Who are you, aged man?' I said.
6
'And how is it you live?'
7
And his answer trickled through my head
8
Like water through a sieve.
9
He said, 'I look for butterflies
10
That sleep among the wheat:
11
I make them into mutton-pies,
12
And sell them in the street.
13
I sell them unto men' he said,
14
'Who sail on stormy seas;
15
And that's the way I get my bread-
16
A trifle, if you please.'
17
But I was thinking of a plan
18
To dye one's whiskers green,
19
And always use so large a fan
20
That they could not be seen.
21
So, having no reply to give
22
To what the old man said,
23
I cried, 'Come, tell me how you live!'
24
And thumped him on the head.
25
His accents mild took up the tale:
26
He said, 'I go my ways,
27
And when I find a mountain-rill,
28
I set it in a blaze;
29
And thence they make a stuff they call
30
Rowland's Macassar Oil-
31
Yet twopence-halfpenny is all
32
They give me for my toil.'
33
But I was thinking of a way
34
To feed oneself on batter,
35
And so go on from day to day
36
Getting a little fatter.
37
I shook him well from side to side,
38
Until his face was blue:
39
'Come, tell me how you live,' I cried,
40
'And what it is you do!'
41
He said: 'I hunt for haddocks' eyes
42
Among the heather bright,
43
And work them into waistcoat-buttons
44
In the silent night.
45
And these I do not sell for gold
46
Or coin of silvery shine,
47
But for a copper halfpenny,
48
And that will purchase nine.
49
I sometimes dig for buttered rolls,
50
Or set limed twigs for crabs;
51
I sometimes search the grassy knolls
52
For wheels of Hansome-cabs.
53
And that's the way' (he gave a wink)
54
'By which I get my wealth-
55
And very gladly will I drink
56
Your Honour's noble health.'
57
I heard him then, for I had just
58
Completed my design
59
To keep the Menai bridge from rust
60
By boiling it in wine.
61
I thanked him much for telling me
62
The way he got his wealth,
63
But chiefly for his wish that he
64
Might drink my noble health.
65
And now, if e'er by chance I put
66
My fingers into glue,
67
Or madly squeeze a right-hand foot
68
Into a left-hand shoe,
69
Or if I drop upon my toe
70
A very heavy weight,
71
I weep, for it reminds me so
72
Of that old man I used to know-
73
Whose look was mild, whose speech was slow,
74
Whose hair was whiter than the snow,
75
Whose face was very like a crow,
76
With eyes like cinders, all aglow,
77
Who seemed distracted with his woe,
78
Who rocked his body to and fro,
79
And muttered mumblingly and low,
80
As if his mouth were full of dough,
81
Who snorted like a buffalo-
82
That summer evening long ago
83
A-sitting on a gate.
All in the Golden Afternoon - Alice in W...
195 views
1 meanings
Go Pro
Unlimited meanings ยท Priority generation
Upgrade
