"Facts" Lewis Carroll WERE I to take an iron gun, And fire it off towards the sun; I grant 'twould reach its mark at last, But not till many years had passed. But should that bullet change its force, And to the planets take its course, ‘Twould never reach the nearest star, Because it is so very far. | England has produced a great many artists and additionally, a great many eccentrics, however none quite so memorable or acclaimed as Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, whom you probably better know as Lewis Carroll. This victorian master of wit and whimsy was born on January 27,1832 in Daresbury, Chesire, England. Raised as the third of eleven children born to a clergyman, Carroll’s family was a close one and as a child he entertained both himself and his family with magic trick performances and marionette shows( the quirky and unconventional charm of which may have been a precursor to his unusual writing style) as well as being the main writer in his family’s newspaper. A clever child Carroll attended Rugby School from 1846 and was admitted to Christ's Church College, Oxford on a scholarship, it was here that after graduating successfully following his study of mathematics and writing he went on to teach. Though, it is not widely known Carroll wrote several works in regard to his mathematical career including An Elementary Treatise on Determinants (1867), Euclid and His Modern Rivals (1879), and Curiosa Mathematica (1888). During his career as a professor, Carroll was ordained as a deacon, but he never followed up on this and refrained from preaching his entire life. This period of Carroll’s life also urged on his passion for photography, and though he did portraits of many people including the poet, Alfred Lord Tennyson and stage actress Ellen Terry, however his favorite subjects were children. It was this pastime that lead to the facilitation of the notorious “Alice” of his most acclaimed novels “Alice in Wonderland,”(1865) and "Through the Looking Glass,”(1872) the heroine of which is based upon Alice Liddell. His favorite model and the daughter of a friend and Dean at Christ’s Church, she and her sisters catalyzed the piece when after hearing it told to them on picnic with Carroll they begged him to write it down for them when they arrived home. Through, the years of 1880 and 1881 Carroll slowly retired from his teaching career and photography in favor of pursuing his passion for writing. A myriad of the philosophies found in Carroll’s writing can be sourced in children’s games and riddles, mischievous word plays and witty satire in the same organization as nursery rhymes. A spirited love of logic based in Carroll’s fondness for math and patterns can be found in his writing, and is apparently not derived from the use of logic as a tool but from its cultivation as a source of merit and comic relief. Much of Carroll’s writing is notably and deliberately childlike, but there is an underlying complexity to humorous fantasies and comic verse. From his first major success(“Alice in Wonderland”) written from autoschediastic story told to entertain three young girls. For all the critic for it’s childish style Carroll’s writing is simultaneously praised for it’s satire and astute banter. From his illogical scenarios and word combinations to his deeper symbolic diagrams and analogies, Carroll’s writing remains captivating to this day ever since his death in Guildford, Surrey, on January 14, 1898. |
The format of “Facts” is straightforward and classic, it’s uncomplicated and rhythmic flowing with candid delivery. Lewis Carroll has arranged his short poem as a series of two quatrains and uses iambic tetrameter( lines of a total of eight syllables beginning with unstressed syllables followed by stressed ones). His rhyme scheme is as a basic as possible reminiscent of nursery rhymes and nonsense poetry in it’s elementary structure: AA BB is followed by CC DD. Carroll seems to aim to confuse his reading audience by using words which rhyme but look nothing alike, so though they rhyme with classical identical end sounds, they appear to more along the visual lines of “slant rhyme”( or rhyme with similar but not identical sounds). Pairings such as “last” and “passed” don’t disrupt Carroll’s cadence in the slightest and yet they contrast strikingly with the appearance of marriages such as “star” and “far” or “gun” and “sun”. His use of “homophones”(words that sound the same but appear visually different is astute and gives his a wider range of vocabulary. Carroll’s contradictory use of simplicity and tradition alongside efficiently and tenacity is compelling and addictively clever( it takes nerve to push the boundaries of the definition of rhyme).
The theme of Lewis Carroll’s poetry is convoluted in fanciful aesthetics and playful absurdity; as is characteristic of his whimsical and wandering style. But beneath its playful exterior “Facts” can be taken to have a deeper relevance, it speaks of the hypocrisy and self-contradiction of the scientific world. The slim defining line between science and logic, his first stanza introduces the logical take, “Were I to take an iron gun,” represents the rigid stability of logic followed by “And fire it off towards the sun;” symbolizes that things will carry on their course confirmed by “I grant ‘twould reach it’s mark at last,”. However, the finishing line “But not till many years had passed.” speaks of the time that something demands, yet it doesn’t reject the theory that all things will come to pass . . . in time. The second stanza contrastingly represents blatant science, “But should that bullet changes it’s force,” slowed by the atmosphere “And to the planet take its course,” brought down by gravity, then logic would be denied “’Twould never reach the nearest star,” our very own sun, “Because [even though it seems so close] it is so very far.” Thus, logic and human willpower are denied by science. However, as is true of all vague yet enthralling poetry it is possessed of multiple meanings, logic can be alternatively interpreted as hope, religion or a personal idea that one has great confidence in all of these mental creations can be defeated by the adamant hand of science.
“Facts” is of poetic category all its own, composed an intriguing and engaging combination of both wit and madness, the greatest of genius is always a little insane and Carroll seems to live to prove this. The format of his writing is keenly simple and wonderfully traditional in it’s strictly ordered line by line arrangement, the rhyme is artfully uncomplicated and eloquently arranged in perfect equilibrium between structure and caprice. The theme is far deeper than the obvious aesthetics and far more wide reaching that a single interpretation, such is the mark of clever literature. In the delicate and naive charismatic verse Lewis Carroll proves that adept poetry need not be complex in appearance, and to original in form to be delightfully rare and effortless gratifying.