Alice at the Queen's Croquet Ground
Stained Glass Panel
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I first read Alice in Wonderland when I was eight years old. I clearly remember lying on the floor poring over the wonderful illustrations by John Tenniel, and being as lost in the story as Alice was when she fell down the rabbit hole. I’ve read it many times since then, and still find new and wonderful things every time I do.

I wrote the following poem when my family recently decided to hold weekly book reviews. The poem served as my weekly submission (it was a bit more successful than another I called “The Bible,” which went, “Read it; you will need it.”) The poem pales in comparison with Lewis Carroll’s lovely prose, but it comes from the heart.

An Ode on Alice
by Ruthann Logsdon Zaroff

Curiouser and curiouser the prose it did seem,
As day became night and the moon it did beam.
I huddled ’neath covers as white as the snow,
And my love for this tome did continue to grow. 

With Rabbit and Dormouse and Hatter and Queen,
And White Knight and Cheshire Cat whose body unseen
Remained in my nightmares for nearly a year.
But yet there was more I learned I had to fear…

For then in the sequel appeared a most hideous
Beast indescribable, the mem’ry insidious!
I read the adventure, and each tick of the clock
Gave life to this beast, the famed Jabberwock!

With vorpal sword in hand the beamish boy
In bravery did slay, oh, what glee, ah, such joy!
Of an age I reflect as the decades have spanned
’tween now and my first reading of Alice and her Wonderland.