Monday 11 October 2010

The Reverend Charles Dodgson

LEWIS CARROLL(self portrait)
The grave of The Reverend Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) in Mount Cemetery on the steep side of the hill opposite Guildford town centre.
Me and Lewis.
The Reverend.
The clock in Guildford High Street late autumn 2007.
The chapel next to Lewis Carroll's grave.


Lewis Carroll was the great mathematician, logician, philosopher, photographer and writer of fantasy. He died on 14th January 1898 at the age of 65 in the home of his sisters in Guildford Surrey.

I love reading his "Jabberwocky" out loud. It's sounds, rhythms and patterns are so uplifting. It makes me feel good.





BELLOW IT OUT TO THE WORLD!!!!!!!!

JABBERWOCKY

Lewis Carroll

(from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872)`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, has 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.



dshaw@jabberwocky.com

5 comments:

  1. I enjoyed this! Suddenly a lot of nonsense makes sense :)

    I was in Oxford in the summer, visiting my brother, and there was a strong Lewis Carroll legacy in the city - from the stained class windows of Christchurch College to the Alice Shop on St Aldates...

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  2. Tony, The cross on Dodgson's grave is leaning. Did you do that? Thanks for the pictures. Mary

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  3. I do have a tendency to be clumsy, Mary. It's Ok I straightened it up afterwards.
    Tony

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  4. Thanks Tony.

    One of the people I knew in Canterbury -- see my recent Bill Brandt post -- was was an old man, the the son of Ella Monier-Williams who had been photographed as a girl by Carroll; the framed photograph was among the family memorabilia & the first of his that I had seen.

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  5. Tony,

    "The chapel next to Lewis Carroll's grave." Lovely, lovely, photo!

    Raquel

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