Twas

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, and the mome raths outgrabe.

'Twas half-past twelve, and (what do you think!) Nor one nor t'other had slept a wink!

'TWAS the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

'twas the night before Glutenmas, when all through the house, not a bagel was stirring, not even a corpulent spouse.

O native land! O Ilion, now betrayed! / Blest home of deities, in war renowned! / Four times beside the very gate 'twas stayed; / four times within the womb the armour clashed and brayed.

'Twas now the time, when on tired mortals crept / first slumber, sweetest that celestials pour.

From house to house in frenzy as I flew, / a melancholy spectre rose in view, / Creusa's very image; ay, 'twas there, / but larger than the living form I knew.

'Twas night; on earth all creatures were asleep, / when lo! the figures of our gods, the same / whom erst from falling Ilion o'er the deep / I brought, scarce rescued from the midmost flame, / before me, sleepless for my country's shame, / stood plain, in plenteousness of light confessed, / where streaming through the sunken lattice came / the moon's full splendour, and their speech addressed, / and I in heart took comfort, hearing their behest.

Awed by the vision and the voice divine / ('twas no mere dream; their very looks I knew, / I saw the fillets round their temples twine, / and clammy sweat did all my limbs bedew) / forthwith, upstarting, from the couch I flew, / and hands and voice together raised in prayer, / and wine unmixt upon the altars threw. / This done, to old Anchises I repair, / pleased with the rites fulfilled, and all the tale declare.

He spake, 'twas done; and Palinurus first / turns the prow leftward: to the left we ply / with oars and sail, and shun the rocks accurst.