The Humorous Verse of Lewis Carroll

by Lewis Carroll

"The editors have performed a task for addicts will be grateful. There is nothing for the faithful to do but to sit down and fall to the banquet." — The New York Times
This is the largest collection of Lewis Carroll's verse ever compiled. It contains almost every poem that Carroll ever wrote. It includes every prose appearing in his books published during his life, privately printed poems, ephemera, poems from manuscripts found among his papers, and from "The Rectory Magazine," Collingwood's "Lewis Carroll Picture Book," "Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll," and rare 19th century periodicals. This is the only place of publication for much of this verse.
This volume contains 150 different poems, offering perhaps the finest whimsy ever written. There are parodies, burlesques, riddles, whimsies, ballads, songs (one with Carroll's own music), extravaganzas, acrostics, and other types, including several of his serious poems. Many poems are annotated to explain contemporary allusions, and this edition retains 130 original illustrations by Tenniel, Frost, Holiday, Furniss, and Carroll himself.

Genres: Poetry, Childrens, Classics, Fiction, Fantasy

464 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1960

About the author

The Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known by the pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican clergyman and photographer.

His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass as well as the poems "The Hunting of the Snark" and "Jabberwocky", all considered to be within the genre of literary nonsense.

Oxford scholar, Church of England Deacon, University Lecturer in Mathematics and Logic, academic author of learned theses, gifted pioneer of portrait photography, colourful writer of imaginative genius and yet a shy and pedantic man, Lewis Carroll stands pre-eminent in the pantheon of inventive literary geniuses.

He also has works published under his real name.

Reviews

[Sam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although I love Carroll's poetry interspersed with his poetry in the Alice books, reading an entire book full of his style of poetry wasn't exactly a walk through a path of mome raths--for me, anyway. It just wasn't my cup of tea. I'm sure lots of people would find it as fun as a game of flamingo and rodent croquet, but I'd rather go paint some roses red myself.

...Okay, I'm done with the Alice references.

In all fairness, many of the poems were really enjoyable. I actually do enjoy the sing-song kind of rhythm I associate with Carroll, but reading that many poems at once when you are used to them being a storytelling tool instead, is just not as enjoyable to me as picking up Alice's Adventures in Wonderland for the 724,897,235,820,358,928,509,238,509,283,409,184,095th time.

[Chloe · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Humorous Verse of Lewis Carroll was a definite change from what I normally read, although I can't decide if it was a good or bad change. I definitely prefer reading poetry that is being used to tell a cohesive story, rather than many small snippets in a row. Despite this, the poems themselves are nice, if not a little hard to read because of the age.

I would recommend this collection to anyone who is looking to read rhythmic and sometimes nonsensical poetry aloud to a child. Is that an insanely specific recommendation? Yes. Is it the target audience that I genuinely believe would benefit most from this collection? Also yes.

I'd say Carroll's writing is best read in his novel works.


3/5 stars

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I give this book a 4/5 stars because it's very whimsical and humorous. There's no plot as it's simply a collection of poetry written by Lewis Carroll.

I enjoyed reading The Humorous Verse of Lewis Carroll because his poetry is clever and creative. One of my favorites is The Jabberwocky because it's a nonsense poem. I enjoy the nonsensical words that Carroll invented to fit the tone of the poem. I enjoyed reading poems I wouldn't otherwise have read if not for this collection. Some poems could be long and arduous to read but are often worth reading because of the comedic parts included. I would recommend this to a friend in the case of they were looking for a book of poetry that wasn't super serious.

[Corban · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book of poetry was at first strange to me. The poems had strange meanings, but as I read more and more, I found pleasing poems with deep themes. Some of the poems were short, such as, "The Red Queen's Lullaby" and others were long, such as, "The White Knight's Ballad". I found the variety made the book more enjoyable to read. This book had nice songs as well. Overall, this book was pleasing to read. I have never been more enamored by a book of poems as I have with this one. I would recommend this book to everyone. I wouldn't recommend every poem in this book to everyone, but this book has a poem for every type of person in the world.

[a.quiet.little.library · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since there is so much writing in here, there are of course parts that I did not love, but what stuck out to me was the beauty and the uniqueness of the ones I did love.

[Kevin Albrecht · Rating 2 out of 5]

While these poems are entertaining taken a few at a time, I think they would be generally more interesting to children. After twenty minutes of reading, I suddenly found myself feeling like I was watching Saturday morning cartoons again: something I look back at fondly from my childhood, but have no desire to repeat. Some of the poems that I did genuinely like were "Jabberwocky" and "The Walrus and the Carpenter".

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Required text for a college class on Lewis Carroll.