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

								


Produced by Jana Srna, Emmy and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by the
University of Florida Digital Collections.)

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND
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:

            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,