Phantasmagoria and Early Verses by Lewis Carroll E-Book

Lewis Carroll

• Herausgeber: Editora Piu
• Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Seitenzahl: 54

Beschreibung

From the same author of "Alice in Wonderland". Get ready to read the longest poem by Lewis Carroll and to enjoy the first verses created by him at the age of 13 to entertain his younger siblings. "Phantasmagoria" is a comedic and poetic conversation between a ghost and the homeowner, in which, amidst various subjects, the specter presents the behavioral rules of ghosts. In the second part, Carroll engages with various everyday issues such as sibling conflicts, matters of conscience, procrastination, fears, and more, often presenting a humorous moral. These are musical, lighthearted, and sarcastic poems from the writer considered the foremost author of global children's and young adult literature.

Leseprobe

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

PART 1 – PHANTASMAGORIA

{ CANTO I } THE TRYSTYNG

{CANTO II} HYS FYVE RULES

{CANTO III} SCARMOGES

{CANTO IV} HYS NOURYTURE

{CANTO V} BYCKERMENT

{CANTO VI} DYSCOMFYTURE

{CANTO VII} SAD SOUVENANCE

PART 2 – EARLY VERSES

My Fairy

Punctuality

Melodies

Brother and Sister

Facts

Ruler and Regulations

Horrors

Misunderstandings

Lays of Sorrow – Nº 1

The Two Brothers

Upon the Lonely Moor

Lays of Mystery, Imagination, and Humour Number I – The Palace of Humbug

A Fable

A Tale of a Tail

The Headstrong Man

AFTERWORD

Foreword

Without an ounce of reason

Caio Riter

I'm not sure when it was that I first came across Lewis Carroll's literature. It was likely during the first times that I dived into written pages, perhaps not. Or maybe I’ve really lost track of the story - the story of me as a reader - just like the girl who, chasing a hurrying rabbit, had the opportunity to enter Wonderland. It always attracted me, the journey of the curious Alice, going down a hole and ending up in a world opposed to any kind of logic. Ever since that first time, of many, that I believed it was possible to chase rabbits and dreams.

And I can’t figure out why it's so fascinating.

Maybe I can’t figure it out precisely because there is no reason, no logic in the universes woven by the English author who, together with Edward Lear, gave life to worlds ruled by nonsense – that dreamlike, nightmarish feeling of disconnection from reality. When we accept the invitation to live the lives proposed by Carroll's characters, we cannot expect rational plots, in which the logic of reality prevails.

No.

On the contrary.

The Carrollian literary word, whether poetic or narrative, baits us, attracts us, envelops us, and there is no way we can stop ourselves from trying it. I believe this is what happened to me. I know that whenever I allow myself to be embraced by Carroll, I will not find prosaic everyday life. I know that the writer will, at all times, surprise me with unusual linguistic arrangements and also with unexpected events. I’m not sure, but I want more.

It is, therefore, these Alician echoes that we will find in the poems that make up this book, although they were written before Lewis Carroll presented Alice Liddell with Alice's Adventures Underground, the first title given to the book he wrote and illustrated by hand, at the request of his young friend, who urged him to write down the story he had told her and her sisters during a boat trip on the Thames. That is how Alice, Carroll's most famous work, was born.

However, in this book the words of Alice's creator are organized poetically: the wordplay and the nonsense take us and lure us into a game that may appear to be naive, but is far from foolish. It doesn't matter what its meaning is (the author seems to say to the reader: you give it some, if you so desire), but rather the sensations provided by the verses, most of which are narratives, with so many weird people running wild in them.

Daily life events of British children from the period, but also those from today, are explored from a distinctive point of view. It is a view that leans towards humor and the construction of improbable scenes, which disturb us and make us delve into a universe of unreason where the unexpected comes to change the direction of our heartgaze and make us see the mundane in a different light.

Just now, while rereading the previous paragraph, I realized that I had let myself get carried away by Carroll’s wordplay and created a portmanteau word: heartgaze, a fusion of heart and gaze. The eyes gaze, but so does the heart. You look, you see and then you make a start. A portmanteau word is always more. It is a concept created by Carroll himself, in Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, when Humpty Dumpty explains to the girl that a portmanteau word has "two meanings packed up into one word.” Incredible, right?

So.

It is this perception that we find in Carroll’s writing, that literature means freeing words from their practical shell, without worrying at all about dictionary definitions, but rather with the sound play that they can make and with the power of opening yourself to other meanings besides the conventional ones. Or even not meaning anything at all.

As such, in the playful dialogue between a ghost and a resident of a house, we can see Carroll’s intention of playing with a situation that is frightening but also amusing, since it is based on a big misunderstanding, besides questioning certain social conventions. In Carroll’s first poems, written to his younger siblings when he was only thirteen-years-old, the author tries to amuse his first readers while criticizing society and the common children’s stories of the time. Stories full of adult morals that were intended to “tame” the little ones, something that seemed to bother Carroll.

The poetry of the man who wrote Alice doesn’t aim to lecture. What it wants is to seduce, amuse, play with the senses. That is why it is great poetry, and that is why it got me in and keeps hold of me. Because of that, I became a collector of Alices and of everything Carroll created.

So, accept the invitation to Phantasmagoria and the First Poems of Lewis Carroll and let yourself be enchanted (as I let myself be) by the words of this author.

PART 1

PHANTASMAGORIA

{ CANTO I }

THE TRYSTYNG

One winter night, at half-past nine,

Cold, tired, and cross, and muddy,

I had come home, too late to dine,

And supper, with cigars and wine,

Was waiting in the study.

There was a strangeness in the room,

And Something white and wavy

Was standing near me in the gloom—

I took it for the carpet-broom

Left by that careless slavey.

But presently the Thing began

To shiver and to sneeze:

On which I said “Come, come, my man!

That’s a most inconsiderate plan.

Less noise there, if you please!”

“I’ve caught a cold,” the Thing replies,