Customer Reviews

Phantasmagoria and Other Poems

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This poem, writen in five line verses, ranks right up there with Alice in Wonderland. The poetry of Homer with the wit of Dr. Suess. I would suggest this book to anyone who likes poetry in any form.

This book has woodcuts by Arthur B. Frost that capture the humor of Carroll's poem perfectly. Martin Gardner has provided a short introduction with letters from Carroll to Frost regarding the art and to a friend with regards to para-psychological phenomena. He also provides notes for obscure words or puns. Frost and Gardner are what makes this the version of Carroll's Phantasmagoria you should read.

The poem itself is a conversation between a man of 42 and a less than adept ghost. Among the things learned are the 5 rules of behavior for a ghost, the housing requirements for a ghost etc. Carroll's vintage humor is expressed in a narrative poem of seven cantos using verses of five rhymed lines. The poetry is well written - the rhymes are not forced but natural, the humor relatively subtle.

This book justifies its being in the series "Literary Classics".

I love Lewis Carroll's work, but sometimes I just have no freaking clue what he's talking about. I experienced this sensation of vagueness a few times during my reading of the Sylvie and Bruno books, but I felt it most while reading some of the poems in Phantasmagoria.

But what I could understand I really enjoyed. I really loved Hiawatha's Photographing, Melancholetta, Size and Tears, and The Lang Coortin', although some of these poems have strangely inconclusive endings. It's interesting to see Carroll's last poem in this book, Fame's Penny Trumpet, where he's really, really mad at academic big-wigs.

Make sure you read Alice before even attempting to read this.

This is great verse if you like Lewis Carroll. It sounds great as beat poetry, too!!