Via Amazon: Today, Lewis Carroll is best remembered as a writer of juvenile fiction responsible for such timeless works as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. However, Carroll was also a poet who wove dark visions and supernatural themes into his substantial body of work. Much of the verse collected in Phantasmagoria and Other Poems has a supernatural or visionary theme. A must-read for fans of Victorian ghost stories.


From Me: There are some wonderfully quirky fun poems in here that demonstrate the best of Caroll's weirdness. While it is not all his best work, and can get cumbersome in places, it is whimsical, funny, clever and satirical.

People who understand, or want to understand the depth of Carroll's gift for complete absurdity. Plus, it rhymes.

"Phantasmagoria" - a brilliant conversation with a ghost
"A Sea Dirge" - applicable to most overrated things
"The Lang Coortin'" - Worth it just to say you figured the language.

AND

"Poeta Fit, Non Nascitur"
Is exceptionally touching, with a nasty dig at the publishing industry at the end. I guess not much has changed since then!

Though I did not like all the pieces, I did find most of them interesting. Many were bordering being epics, if they were not already there.

"A Game of Fives" is typical in ageism/sexism for it's time and therefore underwhelming.

Many of the pieces are VERY heavy reading, but well worth the effort. This is not the instagram-poetry you scan, you have to get into this stuff.

Some of it felt experimental, which is fine, but those were definitely the harder reads.

Read it again. Which I did.

Like it was okay to be weird.

Owns his weirdness like it's nobody's business. The whimsy that drops off the pen, and somehow keeps it's nonsensical voice while being entirely sensible is fascinating.

While the book is inexpensive, it also available via Project Gutenberg, with some fantastic illustrations.

Fun note: he gives a little note before one of his poems professing how he things poetry should be given the same feeling as music.

He then proceeds to use ALL CAPS for his "loud sections".

*giggle*

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Created Jan 28, 2018 at 5:00pm • Submit your own review...