They sought it with thimbles, they sought it with care;
     They pursued it with forks andhope;
They threatened its life with a railway-share;
     They charmed it with smilesand soap.

But the Barrister, weary of proving in vain
     That the Beaver's lace-makingwas wrong,
Fell asleep, and in dreams saw the creature quite plain
     That his fancy had dwelt onso long.

He dreamed that he stood in a shadowy Court,
     Where the Snark, with a glassin its eye,
Dressed in gown, bands, and wig, was defending a pig
     On the charge of deserting itssty.

The Witnesses proved, without error or flaw,
     That the sty was deserted whenfound:
And the Judge kept explaining the state of the law
     In a soft under-current of sound.

The indictment had never been clearly expressed,
     And it seemed that the Snarkhad begun,
And had spoken three hours, before any one guessed
     What the pig was supposed tohave done.

The Jury had each formed a different view
     (Long before the indictmentwas read),
And they all spoke at once, so that none of them knew
     One word that the others hadsaid.

"You must know ---" said the Judge: but the Snark exclaimed"Fudge!"
     That statute is obsolete quite!
Let me tell you, my friends, the whole question depends
     On an ancient manorial right.

"In the matter of Treason the pig would appear
     To have aided, but scarcelyabetted:
While the charge of Insolvency fails, it is clear,
     If you grant the plea 'neverindebted.'

"The fact of Desertion I will not dispute;
     But its guilt, as I trust, isremoved
(So far as related to the costs of this suit)
     By the Alibi which has beenproved.

"My poor client's fate now depends on you votes."
     Here the speaker sat down inhis place,
And directed the Judge to refer to his notes
     And briefly to sum up the case.

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 hadsaid!

When the verdict was called for, the Jury declined,
     As the word was so puzzlingto 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 toilsof 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 mightbe heard.

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

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 forsome years.

The Judge left the Court, looking deeply disgusted:
     But the Snark, though a littleaghast,
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 closeat his ear.
 

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