The
Wonderful
World of
Lewis
Carroll.
Poet Showcase
By Emily Rach
Getting to know Mr. Carroll.
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He was the eldest son and third child in a family
of four boys and seven girls.
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His real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson,
Lewis Carroll came from Latinising his first two
names, and then Anglicising them.
Lutwidge = Ludovic = Lewis
Charles = Carolus = Carroll
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His mother was Frances Jane Lutwidge and his
father the Rev. Charles Dodgson.
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Born in Daresbury, Cheshire on January 27, 1832
and passed away on January 14, 1898 at the age
of 65.
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Lewis and his family lived on a small, far off,
isolated island that resembled a country-village
kind of setting.
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English logician, mathematician, photographer,
artist, poet, and a novelist, best known for his
novel Alice in Wonderland.
His family had few friends outside the home, but
kept themselves involved in each others lives.
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Lewis himself liked to make up games for the
family to play.
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Lewis endured many illnesses and viruses, which
in the long run left him deaf in one ear.
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Attended Richmond School, in Yorkshire,18441845 for a year and Rugby school from 1846-1850
for four years. Surprisingly enough his best subject
was math, even though english was his passion.
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In the area Lewis grew up in there wasn’t much to
do. Everyday was relatively relaxing and so his form
of poetry was inspired by imagination and fantasy.
This likely came from the fact of him trying to make
life more exciting living on the island.
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Lewis Carroll's life connection throughout his
poetry is influenced strongly by the time period that
he grew up in. He walked in his own direction and
was unique, which was exactly what he strived for.
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His works were also influenced by his Victorian
lifestyle and neglected childhood. It would
almost seem as if Lewis often dreamt of getting
away from reality and creating his own world
with selectively filtered people and things from
his everyday life.
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His writing broke the ice with uniqueness during
the time period he lived in. His relaxed,
humorous tone, depth of characters and the focus
of them finding or having an interaction with a
special, magnificent item, kept readers interested
and visioning.
 His readers were intrigued in the witty, clever,
and symbolic social commentary that he supplied
from his point of view in life.
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By far the biggest inspiration of his works was a
little girl, a close friend, named Alice Pleasance
Leddell, which not only inspired him to write
many poems, but also inspired him to write the
book Alice in Wonderland and Through the
Looking Glass.
Best Works of Carroll
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The Walrus and the Carpenter
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The Jabberwocky
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A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky
The Walrus & the Carpenter
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nql1_
RKwQt0
The Jabberwocky
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A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky
BY LEWIS CARROLL
A boat beneath a sunny sky,
Lingering onward dreamily
In an evening of July —
Children three that nestle near,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Pleased a simple tale to hear —
Long has paled that sunny sky:
Echoes fade and memories die:
Autumn frosts have slain July.
Still she haunts me, phantomwise,
Alice moving under skies
Never seen by waking eyes.
Children yet, the tale to hear,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Lovingly shall nestle near.
In a Wonderland they lie,
Dreaming as the days go by,
Dreaming as the summers die:
Ever drifting down the stream —
Lingering in the golden gleam —
Life, what is it but a dream?
A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGB4T
QGNFKc
Analysis
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If you look at the first letter starting each line,
they spell out Alice Pleasance Liddell - the little
girl who had the greatest inspiration on Lewis for
his writing. He saw her as a fantasy character,
which helped him make this fantasy world he
wrote about seem like reality.
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The poem was written in 1872.
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The speaker throughout the poem is Lewis Carroll
himself. He is depicting a story to three children,
Alice and her two sisters.
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The Setting of the poem is on an evening in July,
outdoors on a boat, relaxingly drifting away.
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This piece reminds us that as children grow up,
they lose their innocence and are no longer able
to dream and imagine as carelessly as they were
able to when they were young.
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The first, second, and fifth stanza have an
enthusiastic tone showing affection. The third
and fourth stanza are more monotone and depict
a much darker, gloomy picture. To finish, the last
two stanzas are enthusiastic.
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First stanza - explains the setting and main action of
poem (of Lewis is taking Alice and her two sisters on a
boat ride).
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Second stanza - depicts the children awaiting the
story that Lewis is about to tell.
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Third stanza- is discussing how people change
overtime, age, and lose their innocence. Things are
never the same once time passes.
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Fourth stanza - Lewis is talking about how Alice
haunts him and is everywhere in his mind.
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Fifth stanza - is returning to the scene of the
children eagerly waiting to hear his story.
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Sixth and seventh stanza - the poem explains
how children have the carelessness to dream and
let their imagination take over, which is often
hard to do once you’ve grown up. This is where
the main idea of the poem comes across - the loss
of innocence.
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The use of the word phantomwise explains Alice
as a ghost or phantom that’s haunting Lewis.
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“Summer’s die” is an example of personification
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In the second and fifth stanza there is repetition
found between “children” having an “eager eye
and willing ear.”
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There is alliteration in “sunny sky”, “nestle near”,
and “golden gleam”.
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Metonymy can be seen in “eager eye and willing
ear”.
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The last line contains a metaphor comparing life
to a dream.
“Long has paled that sunny sky;
Echoes fade and memories die;
Autumn frosts have slain July”
This verse of the poem gives an image of loss of
innocence and death by describing the sudden
change of seasons – particularly the contrast
between July (warm, vibrant, representing full
imagination) and Autumn (cold, onset of winter,
representing the forced maturity of adulthood).
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Aside from the first verse of the poem, the rhyme
scheme is aaa, bbb, aaa.
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The irony in this poem is that Lewis Carroll has
grown old and still has a better imagination than
kids who have grown up.
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The poem is written in iambic tetrameter.
This is one of Lewis Carroll’s best poems. It describes
the relationship between growing up and the loss of
innocence, which separates imagination and reality. It
remarks on the sadness of the loss that occurs in the
transition from childhood to adulthood.
This is something we can see daily in our lives and the
lives of those around us. I think this poem serves the
excellent purpose of depicting to, and reminding us of,
the loss of innocence and the value of a healthy
imagination, so that we may hopefully not undergo a
complete loss of that skill.