Create an Alphabet’s Worth of Six-line Stanzas, Each Introducing a Different Partner for the Walrus
Sometime in 1871, presenting the text
for “The Walrus and the Carpenter” to his illustrator John Tenniel for the
artist to illustrate, Lewis Carroll gave the man alternate choices for the
character of the Carpenter, namely the Butterfly and the Baronet, explaining
that each fit the poem metrically (in what is here designated as a -- ^ -- pattern)
and that Tenniel should make the selection based on the chosen image’s
pictorial potential.
The list below features 26 other options
Carroll might have offered. The list includes neither inanimate objects (for
example, ‘the Catapult’ is not included) nor phrases (e.g., it excludes ‘the Bishop’s
Thumb’ even though that phrase exhibits the requisite -- ^ -- pattern).
Otherwise, pretty much anything goes, and the list is far from comprehensive.
Here’s Carroll’s original (with a normalized punctuation: pace Rev'd Carroll):
The Walrus and
the Carpenter
Were walking close
at hand;
They wept like
anything to see
Such quantities
of sand:
“If this were
only cleared away,”
They said, “it would be grand!”
And here are several options:
The Walrus and the Astronaut
The Walrus and the Astronaut
The Walrus and the Basilisk
The Walrus and...
the Corporal, the
Doberman,
the Extrovert, the Fisher King,
the Gadabout, the Harlequin,
the Idiot, the Janitor, the Kittiwake,
the Liberal, the Masochist, the Neonate,
the Ombudsman, the Pantywaist,
the Quietist, the Radical, the Shepherdess,
the Trotskyite, the Ubermensch,
the Vagabond, the Wanderer,
the Xylocarp, the Yodeler, the Zebrafish
the Extrovert, the Fisher King,
the Gadabout, the Harlequin,
the Idiot, the Janitor, the Kittiwake,
the Liberal, the Masochist, the Neonate,
the Ombudsman, the Pantywaist,
the Quietist, the Radical, the Shepherdess,
the Trotskyite, the Ubermensch,
the Vagabond, the Wanderer,
the Xylocarp, the Yodeler, the Zebrafish
Or select your own new partners,
as long as they maintain the -- ^ -- pattern.
Then compose six new line stanzas using each additional option in turn, following the metrical model and rhyme scheme of Carroll's original.
