"You Are Old, Father William" is a poem by

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are '' Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequ ...

that appears in his 1865 book ''

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creature ...

''. It is recited by Alice in Chapter 5, " Advice from a Caterpillar" (Chapter 3 in the original manuscript). Alice informs the Caterpillar that she has previously tried to repeat " How Doth the Little Busy Bee" and has had it all come wrong as "

How Doth the Little Crocodile "How Doth the Little Crocodile" is a poem by Lewis Carroll which appears in chapter 2 of his 1865 novel ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''. Alice recites it while attempting to recall " Against Idleness and Mischief" by Isaac Watts. It describ ...

". The Caterpillar asks her to repeat "You Are Old, Father William", and she recites it.

Text

Provenance

Like most poems in ''Alice'', the poem is a

parody A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its sub ...

of a poem then well-known to children,

Robert Southey Robert Southey ( or ; 12 August 1774 – 21 March 1843) was an English poet of the Romantic school, and Poet Laureate from 1813 until his death. Like the other Lake Poets, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Southey began as a ra ...

's didactic poem " The Old Man's Comforts and How He Gained Them", originally published in 1799. Like the other poems parodied by Lewis Carroll in ''Alice'', this original poem is now mostly forgotten, and only the parody is remembered. Carroll's parody "undermines the pious didacticism of Southey's original and gives Father William an eccentric vitality that rebounds upon his idiot questioner".

Martin Gardner Martin Gardner (October 21, 1914May 22, 2010) was an American popular mathematics and popular science writer with interests also encompassing scientific skepticism, micromagic, philosophy, religion, and literatureespecially the writings of Lew ...

calls it "one of the undisputed masterpieces of nonsense verse". Since then, it has been parodied further, including more than 20 versions by 1886 a version by Charles Larcom Graves, a writer for ''

Punch Punch commonly refers to: * Punch (combat), a strike made using the hand closed into a fist * Punch (drink), a wide assortment of drinks, non-alcoholic or alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice Punch may also refer to: Places * Pun ...

'' in 1889, and "You are young, Kaiser William".

Appearances

In the

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

animated film ''Alice in Wonderland'' (1951) the first stanza of the poem is recited by

Tweedledum and Tweedledee Tweedledum and Tweedledee are characters in an English nursery rhyme and in Lewis Carroll's 1871 book ''Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There''. Their names may have originally come from an epigram written by poet John Byrom. The ...

as a song. "Father William" was played by Sammy Davis, Jr. in the 1985 film. Davis, Jr. also sang the poem. The 1999 film briefly shows Father William as Alice recites the first verse of the poem to the Caterpillar.

They Might Be Giants They Might Be Giants (often abbreviated as TMBG) is an American alternative rock band formed in 1982 by John Flansburgh and John Linnell. During TMBG's early years, Flansburgh and Linnell frequently performed as a duo, often accompanied by a ...

recorded a song using the lyrics of the poem for the compilation album ''

Almost Alice ''Almost Alice: Music Inspired by the Motion Picture'' is a 2010 concept album of various artists' music inspired by Tim Burton's film, ''Alice in Wonderland''. The album is also notable for featuring songs that were inspired from quotes directly ...

'' for the 2010 film '' Alice in Wonderland''.

Notes

External links

* {{Alice, state=expanded Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Poetry by Lewis Carroll 1865 poems Parodies of literature