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Lewis Carroll
On January 27th 1832 the Dodgson family welcomed their third child into the world, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll. Carroll was born into a wealthy family, which gave him opportunities to attend top schools across England. In Carroll's teen years, he attended The Yorkshire grammar school and Rugby School. As Carroll matured in age and wisdom he graduated from The Christ Church College at Oxford, where he majored in English literature and mathematics. Carroll lectured at the college and wrote children's literature for a living. During a picnic Carroll started to tell a story to a young girl, Alice Liddell. Alice Liddell was the daughter of Henry George Liddell, head of the Oxford College. The story Alice in Wonderland was created out of the story Carroll was telling. In 1863 the story originally appeared as Alice's Adventures Underground, however then modified throughout the years and became Alice in Wonderland. Carroll imputed poems, songs and other forms media in his work capture the attention of readers. One of Carroll's poems in Alice in Wonderland is the Walrus and the Carpenter. A shifty walrus performs various acts of trickery against a carpenter and class of oysters in order to satisfy himself to a worthy meal. Due to Carroll's successful production he made a sequel to Alice in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass. Some other famous pieces of work include, The Hunting of the Shark, and The wasp in the wig. Carroll's work is always set to capture the audience by using various literary techniques. Children are very interested in his work because of the method used to compose the story. Carroll's description of an object is so clear and visualizing that a picture would not come close to displaying the object. Carroll's work as survived since the 18th century because of the effect it has on people, no matter how far it is in the future Lewis Carroll will always be well known.
In this poem Carroll utilizes an assortment of literary techniques to seize the reader's attention and enable them to view matter alternately. By using these techniques the reader can interpret the meaning of the poem and relate. To begin, the assonance and rhyme technique are used in the first stanza to develop interest, as Carroll states, "The sun was shining on the sea, Shining with all his might/ He did his very best to make the billows smooth and bright- and this was odd, because it was the middle of the night" (lines 1-6). Here, assonance is evident because of the repetition of the "I" sounding vowel, in the words "Shining, might, bright, night, billows and middle". The rhyme technique is also utilized, as the words, might, bright and night all rhyme. The use of both devices in this stanza enables the reader to better immerse themselves in the poem's rhythm. Once a reader is engaged in a rhyme scheme they naturally want to continue reading because it's gratifying to the mind. If a poem only consists of rhyming the reader will start to lose interest. Carroll evades this scenario by adding humor to the poem. This enhancement allows the reader to regain interest if any was lost. Humor is portrayed as Carroll states, "And this was odd, because it was the middle of the night" (Line 5-6). Humor is established because, if it were to be to be night there would be no sunlight, but since the sun is out it is supposed to be day. This line is also a relevant example of imagery as it challenges the reader to envision how the sun would appear in the night, as if it were a spherical flashlight in the dark. Although this story was targeted to children, this stanza allows more matured readers to strengthen their imagination and philosophy. In the second stanza Carroll uses alliteration, rhyming, personification and imagery to enable the reader to imagine mind-boggling matters. Carroll states, "The moon was shining sulkily because she thought the sun had no business to be there after the day was done-it was very rude of him" (lines 7 - 12). When a reader comes across a word like "shining", they tend to think of something bright, shiny or something with a good connotation. In this case however, the author cleverly combines alliteration and contradiction, by describing the moon as "shining sulkily" (line 7), which allows the reader to imagine an unsatisfied moon.
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