Lewis Carroll

Phantasmagoria and Other Poems Lewis Carroll

Phantasmagoria is a narrative discussion written in seven cantos between a ghost (a Phantom) and a man named Tibbets. Carroll portrays the ghost as not so different from human beings. They may gibber and jangle their chains, but they, like us, simply have a job to do and that job is to haunt. Just as in our society, in ghost society there is a hierarchy and ghosts (for there are different orders of ghosts, he tells the narrator) are answerable to the King who must be addressed as "Your Royal Whiteness. ONE winter night, at half-past nine, Cold, tired, and cross, and muddy, I had come home, too late to dine, And supper, with cigars and wine, Was waiting in the study. There was a strangeness in the room, And Something white and wavyWas standing near me in the gloom-I took it for the carpet-broomLeft by that careless slavey. But presently the Thing beganTo shiver and to sneeze: On which I said "Come, come, my man!That's a most inconsiderate plan. Less noise there, if you pl