(27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898 / Cheshire)

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A Game of Fives

Five little girls, of Five, Four, Three, Two, One:
Rolling on the hearthrug, full of tricks and fun.

Five rosy girls, in years from Ten to Six:
Sitting down to lessons - no more time for tricks.

Five growing girls, from Fifteen to Eleven:
Music, Drawing, Languages, and food enough for seven!

Five winsome girls, from Twenty to Sixteen:
Each young man that calls, I say "Now tell me which you MEAN!"

Five dashing girls, the youngest Twenty-one:
But, if nobody proposes, what is there to be done?

Five showy girls - but Thirty is an age
When girls may be ENGAGING, but they somehow don't ENGAGE.

Five dressy girls, of Thirty-one or more:
So gracious to the shy young men they snubbed so much before!


Five PASSE girls - Their age? Well, never mind!
We jog along together, like the rest of human kind:
But the quondam "careless bachelor" begins to think he knows
The answer to that ancient problem "how the money goes"!

Submitted: Tuesday, December 31, 2002


Read poems about / on: fun, money, food, music, together, time, girl

Comments about this poem (A Game of Fives by Lewis Carroll )

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  • Philo Yan (9/16/2012 11:49:00 PM)

    Some families of women of that era equate husband material based on how wealthy the man or his family was. With such standards, the young women may find it hard to marry if they want t to marry for love and not for money.

    0 person liked.
    2 person did not like.
  • Njuguna P M (9/16/2012 1:30:00 PM)

    Very nice. I loved the unique art in it.

    1 person liked.
    2 person did not like.
  • Kevin Straw (9/16/2012 10:50:00 AM)

    These are five girls who will never have sex; usual in those days in middle class houses. Women were marriage fodder or on the shelf all their lives.

    4 person liked.
    0 person did not like.
  • Francisca Darko (9/16/2012 8:09:00 AM)

    Lovely write! So cool to watch them change with age

    2 person liked.
    1 person did not like.
  • M.L Bennett (4/16/2012 7:22:00 PM)

    Very creative, I loved it!

    2 person liked.
    1 person did not like.
  • Cassie Damon (9/17/2011 3:09:00 PM)

    in my very odd opinion i find this poem to be extremely cute! !

    2 person liked.
    1 person did not like.
  • Ramesh T A (9/16/2011 2:54:00 PM)

    Many roles for the female to play in life! Their part of play is well depicted by the critical observation of Lewis Carroll! Is it fair to confine life of man and woman with money at the end!

    1 person liked.
    2 person did not like.
  • Leon D. Guerrero (9/16/2009 8:12:00 PM)

    A real Poem! ! A real poem! !

    1 person liked.
    2 person did not like.
  • Chamekka Jones (9/16/2009 9:34:00 AM)

    LOVE IT! ! ! ESPECIALLY THE ENDING.

    0 person liked.
    2 person did not like.
  • Kevin Straw (9/16/2009 5:37:00 AM)

    A poem describing an age which has, thankfully, passed; when women had a 'sell-by' date in the marriage stakes, but men did not.

    1 person liked.
    1 person did not like.
Read all 10 comments »
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