My Fancy
by Lewis Carroll

English novelist and poet. Famous for his children's stories, especially Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There (1871). His children's poems include Phantasmagoria (published with other poems in 1869), The Hunting of the Snark (1876) and Sylvie and Bruno (1889). He also published various mathematical treatises of which the most notable is his light-hearted defence of Euclid, Euclid and his Modern Rivals. His stories and poems have been seen as revolutionising children's literature,
breaking with and even parodying the moral tales which had previously dominated.

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My Fancy
by Lewis Carroll

I painted her a gushing thing,
With years about a score;
I little thought to find they were
A least a dozen more;
My fancy gave her eyes of blue,
A curly auburn head:
I came to find the blue a green,
The auburn turned to red.

She boxed my ears this morning,
They tingled very much;
I own that I could wish her
A somewhat lighter touch;
And if you ask me how
Her charms might be improved,
I would not have them added to,
But just a few removed!

She has the bear's ethereal grace,
The bland hyaena's laugh,
The footstep of the elephant,
The neck of a giraffe;
I love her still, believe me,
Though my heart its passion hides;
"She's all my fancy painted her,"
But oh! how much besides!

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My Fancy by Lewis Carroll