Lewis Carroll: The Hunting of the Snark

6. Fit the Sixth: THE BARRISTER'S DREAM (continued)

But the Judge said he never had summed up before;
     So the Snark undertook it instead,
And summed it so well that it came to far more
     Than the Witnesses ever had said!

When the verdict was called for, the Jury declined,
     As the word was so puzzling to spell;
But they ventured to hope that the Snark wouldn't mind
     Undertaking that duty as well.

So the Snark found the verdict, although, as it owned,
     It was spent with the toils of the day:
When it said the word "GUILTY!" the Jury all groaned,
     And some of them fainted away.

Then the Snark pronounced sentence, the Judge being quite
     Too nervous to utter a word:
When it rose to its feet, there was silence like night,
     And the fall of a pin might be heard.

"Transportation for life" was the sentence it gave,
     "And *then* to be fined forty pound."
The Jury all cheered, though the Judge said he feared
     That the phrase was not legally sound.

But their wild exultation was suddenly checked
     When the jailer informed them, with tears,
Such a sentence would have not the slightest effect,
     As the pig had been dead for some years.

The Judge left the Court, looking deeply disgusted:
     But the Snark, though a little aghast,
As the lawyer to whom the defense was entrusted,
     Went bellowing on to the last.

Thus the Barrister dreamed, while the bellowing seemed
     To grow every moment more clear:
Till he woke to the knell of a furious bell,
     Which the Bellman rang close at his ear.