Alice in Wonderland

by Lewis Carroll

Edition

I’m not really sure what edition this is from. The poetry in the later chapters is different from the poetry in my version. But since I liked it better, I left it. The most notable difference is I passed by his garden, which, in my version (The Dolphin Master), goes simply: 

“I passed by his garden, and marked, with one eye,
 How the owl and the oyster were sharing a pie--”
Whereas this one is quite longer, and much more gruesome. (See The Lobster Quadrille.)


The Introduction


All in the golden afternoon
Full leisurely we glide;
For both our oars, with little skill,
By little arms are plied,
While little hands make vain pretence
Our wanderings to guide.

Ah, cruel Three!  In such an hour
Beneath such dreamy weather,
To beg a tale of breath too weak
To stir the tiniest feather!
Yet what can one poor voice avail
Against three tongues together?

Imperious Prima flashes forth
Her edict to begin it
In gentler tone Secunda hopes
“There will be nonsense in it!”
While Tertia interrupts the tale
Not more than once a minute.

Anon, to sudden silence won,
In fancy they pursue
The dream-child moving through a land
Of wonders wild and new,
In friendly chat with bird or beast
And half believe it true.

And ever, as the story drained
And faintly strove that weary one
The rest next time--It is next time!
The happy voices cry.

Thus grew the tale of Wonderland:
Thus slowly, one by one,
Its quaint events were hammered out--
And now the tale is done,
And home we steer, a merry crew,
Beneath the setting sun.

Alice! a childish story take,
And with a gentle hand
Lay it where Childhood’s dreams are twined
In Memory’s mystic band,
Like pilgrim’s wither’d wreath of flowers
Pluck’d in a far-off land.

Contents

Transcribed by Michael Hawley for the On-Line Book Initiative (world.std.com). Organized into web format by Jerry Stratton, for FireBlade Coffeehouse.

If you have any comments or questions, please let me know!

Jerry