Lewis Carroll

Category: Online Poetry

(1832-1898)

Through all the delightful nonsense of Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ and ‘Through the Looking Glass’ runs a strong vein of sense. Both the sense and the nonsense came naturally to Lewis Carroll.

Carroll was born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson on Jan. 27, 1832, at Daresbury in Cheshire, England. His father was a clergyman, and Charles was the eldest of 11 children–four boys and seven girls. When he was 12 years old, he was sent to school at nearby Rutland, and two years later he entered Rugby. There he earned good grades in classical languages and mathematics as well as a reputation for defending himself with his fists.

When he was 18, Charles entered Christ Church College, Oxford University, where he studied, worked, and lived for the rest of his life. There he took his bachelor’s and master’s degrees, was ordained a deacon of the Church of England, and taught mathematics to several generations of Oxford students. He never married. His few adult friends were mainly fellow faculty members. His hobbies were mathematical puzzles and photography.

Lewis Carroll always loved children. He gave parties for them and took them to the theater and on picnics. On one such picnic his guests were Alice, Lorina, and Edith, the daughters of Dr. Henry Liddell, dean of Christ Church College. On this hot summer day in a meadow along the Isis River he began to tell them the ‘Alice’ stories. Later he wrote them out for the children, and the manuscript tales were read and reread by many people. In 1864 ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ was published, and ‘Through the Looking Glass’ in 1871. Both were illustrated by the famous cartoonist and artist Sir John Tenniel.

In 1876 he published ‘The Hunting of the Snark’, the amusing subtitle of which is ‘An Agony in Eight Fits’. Other important children’s books written by him were ‘Sylvie and Bruno’ (1889) and ‘Sylvie and Bruno Concluded’ (1893). To these books he signed his pen name; for several other works on mathematics and logic he used his real name. His book royalties enabled him to teach fewer classes, and he spent his summers at Eastbourne on the seacoast. He died on Jan. 14, 1898.

Selected Poems

Jabberwocky

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

by Lewis Carroll

Christmas-Greetings (from a Fairy to a Child)

LADY dear, if Fairies may
For a moment lay aside
Cunning tricks and elfish play,
‘Tis at happy Christmas-tide.

We have heared the children say—
Gentle children, whom we love—
Long ago, on Christmas-Day,
Came a message from above.

Still, as Christmas-tide comes round,
They remember it again—
Echo still the joyful sound
“Peace on earth, good-will to men!”

Yet the hearts must child-like be
Where such heavenly guests abide;
Unto children, in their glee,
All the year is Christmas-tide.

Thus forgetting tricks and play
For a moment, Lady dear,
We would wish you, if we may,
Merry Christmas, glad New Year!

Christmas, 1867. by Lewis Carroll