Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll

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Title: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Illustrated by Arthur Rackham. With a Proem by Austin Dobson

Author: Lewis Carroll

Illustrator: Arthur Rackham

Release Date: May 19, 2009 [EBook #28885]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

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ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

[Illustration: "Alice"]

[Illustration:

ALICE'S·ADVENTURES IN·WONDERLAND BY·LEWIS·CARROLL ILLUSTRATED·BY ARTHUR·RACKHAM

WITH A PROEM BY AUSTIN DOBSON

LONDON·WILLIAM·HEINEMANN NEW·YORK·DOUBLEDAY·PAGE·&·Co]

PRINTED IN ENGLAND

'Tis two score years since CARROLL'S art,

With topsy-turvy magic,

Sent ALICE wondering through a part

Half-comic and half-tragic.

Enchanting ALICE! Black-and-white

Has made your deeds perennial;

And naught save "Chaos and old Night"

Can part you now from TENNIEL;

But still you are a Type, and based

In Truth, like LEAR and HAMLET;

And Types may be re-draped to taste

In cloth-of-gold or camlet.

Here comes afresh Costumier, then;

That Taste may gain a wrinkle

From him who drew with such deft pen

The rags of RIP VAN WINKLE!

AUSTIN DOBSON.

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

The wells of fancy dry.

And faintly strove that weary one

To put the subject by,

"The rest next time--" "It is next time!"

The happy voices cry.

Thus grew the tale of Wonderland: