Lewis Carroll's 'The Walrus and the Carpenter'.

Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)

‘Light verse’ is often a dismissive term. Light verse can be clever, witty, humorous, entertaining, memorable and enjoyable but Real poetry should be serious, profound, ‘deep’, emotional….it’s a silly argument. Some of the best poetry of the 19th century is described as ‘light verse’, and Lewis Carroll wrote some of the best examples.

Almost as silly as the dismissal of light verse is the inevitable attempt to find political, religious or ideological themes that would raise it to the level of ‘serious poetry’.

It is what it is.

Lewis Carroll's 'Jabberwocky'.

One of the great pieces of nonsense, possibly a parody of Old English, but who really cares.

It seemed a shame to ‘read’ it, so here’s a version done from memory. I don’t remember when I first memorised it so appologies for any mistakes.