| «Come, listen, people, while I tell you again
 | 
| The five unmistakable marks
 | 
| By which you may know, wherever you go
 | 
| The warranted genuine Snarks
 | 
| «Let us take them in order. | 
| The first is the taste
 | 
| Which is meagre and hollow, but crisp:
 | 
| Like a coat that is rather too tight in the waist
 | 
| With a flavour of Will-o'-the-wisp
 | 
| «We have sailed many weeks, we have sailed many days
 | 
| (Seven days to the week I allow)
 | 
| But a true Snark on who, we might lovingly gaze
 | 
| We have never beheld till now!
 | 
| «Its habit of getting up late you’ll agree
 | 
| That it carries too far, when I say
 | 
| That it frequently breakfasts at five-o'clock tea
 | 
| And dines on the following day
 | 
| «The third is its slowness in taking a jest
 | 
| Should you happen to venture on one
 | 
| It will sigh like a thing that is deeply distressed:
 | 
| And it always looks grave at a pun
 | 
| «We have sailed many weeks, we have sailed many days
 | 
| (Seven days to the week I allow)
 | 
| But a true Snark on who, we might lovingly gaze
 | 
| We have never beheld till now!
 | 
| «The fourth is its fondness for bathing-machines
 | 
| Which it constantly carries about
 | 
| And believes that they add to the beauty of scenes—
 | 
| A sentiment open to doubt
 | 
| «The fifth is ambition. | 
| It next will be right
 | 
| To describe each particular batch:
 | 
| Distinguishing those that have feathers, and bite
 | 
| From those that have whiskers, and scratch
 | 
| «For, though common Snarks do no manner of harm
 | 
| Yet, I feel it my duty to say
 | 
| Some are Boojums—» The Bellman broke off in alarm
 | 
| For the Baker had fainted away
 | 
| «We have sailed many weeks, we have sailed many days
 | 
| (Seven days to the week I allow)
 | 
| But a true Snark on who, we might lovingly gaze
 | 
| We have never beheld till now! |