Charles Dodgson/ Lewis Carroll

Stiff-backed in a train carriage, smiling across,
The kindly gentleman opens up his black bag
To coax a little girl into puzzles and games,
Her laughing mother looking fondly on.

Pert cherubs, an ever-enlarging harem
Of prepubescent mademoiselles, all his own!
Meticulously fussing in his college studio,
He poses another darling for the camera.

Seductive visions, collected to be cherished…
Malarial fever of perverse invention,
Gadgets and improvements, sophic sleights,
Self-patented methods of being a self.

Stammering nonce, vestal virgin of the word,
He catalogues monstrous hoards of letters,
Each trophy arranged by precise protocol,-
‘Explanatory”,”advisory”,”diverting”, “offended”.

Walking acrostic,the player and the game,
Salvaging shipwrecks from sleepless nights,
Knotty paradoxes,delicious freaks of logic,
He savours the biblical violence of puns.

Rowing on the river, by Elysian meadows,
The exultant reverend extemporizes a tale
To bright little Alice, rapt as she coxes,
“Promise, Mr Dodgson, to write it all down!”.