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06-11-2018, 11:39 PM
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The Lobster Quadrille
"What matters it how far we go?"
His scaly friend replied.
"There is another shore, you know,
Upon the other side.
The further off from England,
The nearer is to France.
Then turn not pale, beloved snail,
But come and join the dance."
I've long loved these lines, which IMO perfectly describe Dante's Purgatorio. I can also confirm from experience that indeed, the further off from England, the nearer is to France.
Cheers,
John
Last edited by John Isbell; 06-12-2018 at 02:45 AM.
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06-12-2018, 03:12 PM
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Join Date: Jul 2013
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For reference the full text of the poem & the poem it parodies are here.
Dodgson/Carroll was a mathematician, a logician, and a clergyman. There are some indications of all that in S3 & also in the poem as a whole.
Some darker undertones, characteristic I think of Carroll.
The whiting tries to tempt the snail by offering a chance to get nearer to France. Lots of luck, snail! The animals are food animals. Even, poetically, the mock turtle.
Carroll was surreal before surrealism.
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06-12-2018, 06:53 PM
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Yup, the whiting gets eaten in England, as Alice discusses, the snail in France, as she does not. Thanks for pointing that out, Woody!
Cheers,
John
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06-22-2018, 07:50 PM
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Join Date: May 2016
Location: Staffordshire, England
Posts: 4,423
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I love Alice and everything about it. You Are Old Father William, How Doth The Little Crocodile...they all haunt my sweaty dreams of childhood. He was spiky and weird, AA Milne was dry and sweet and funny. Beatrix Potter is overrated rubbish (nice pictures though).
Remember the mock turtle's rules of mathematics? Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision.
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06-23-2018, 02:35 AM
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I once appeared in print on the page facing Christopher Robin. To the extent that Christopher Robin exists.
Cheers,
John
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06-23-2018, 02:36 AM
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Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Old South Wales (UK)
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Mark, you have to have lived and observed for a long time before you can see those four fine words in context. They are a sequence, a natural progression. There, despite the grace of God, go most of us.
And John, I did so in an anthology, opposite Auden. We settle companionably face-to-face each time the book closes. To the extent, of course, that we both exist.
.
Last edited by Ann Drysdale; 06-23-2018 at 02:42 AM.
Reason: in answering Mark, I overlooked John, who had crept up behind me while I wasn't looking.
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06-23-2018, 02:44 AM
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Join Date: Mar 2017
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Yes, Carroll was, besides all else, a genius.
Anne, how lovely to share a page with Auden! A fine poet and a fine man, from the little I know. Also, you're there on merit. Such was not particularly my case.
Cheers,
John
Update: to say one must watch out for me creeping up behind them.
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