Wonderland

...while researching Lewis Carroll, I came across this, along with a huge bulk of other photographs containing or taken by Carroll, and I gotta say, it evokes mixed feelings. There's something obviously obsessive and pertaining to sexual about his macabre shots, but...something very clinical and troubled, too. It's...odd. This one, though...Christ. Here he's with the girl who inspired Wonderland, Alice Liddell. And...well. I feel a bit sick, and a little intrigued at the same time.

A boat beneath a sunny sky,
Lingering onward dreamily
In an evening of July--

Children three that nestle near,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Pleased a simple tale to hear--

Long has paled that sunny sky:
Echoes fade and memories die.
Autumn frosts have slain July.

Still she haunts me, phantomwise,
Alice moving under skies
Never seen by waking eyes.

Children yet, the tale to hear,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Lovingly shall nestle near.

In a Wonderland they lie,
Dreaming as the days go by,
Dreaming as the summers die:

Ever drifting down the stream--
Lingering in the golden gleam--
Life, what is it but a dream?