Inspiration Monday #2: Wonderland!

"'The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts, 

All on a summer day:

The Knave of Hearts, he stole those tarts

And took them quite away!'"

As you can see, I am a (very) amateur photographer.

I love pirates, this is true. But if possible, I love Wonderland even more. My first introduction to Wonderland was through the 1999 movie version, which my grandparents owned on a VHS tape. I watched that movie with my sister so many times! Later, that same sister read Alice in Wonderland out loud to me.

I thought I'd start out by answering the question, "Why is a raven like a writing desk?"
You've probably heard all the cleverest answers to this question already. Lewis Carroll's is, predictably, the best: "Because it can produce a few notes, tho they are very flat; and it is nevar put with the wrong end in front!" (Notice that nevar is raven spelled backwards!)
Another possible answer is, "Poe wrote on both."
Or, "They both come with inky quills."

A while ago I had the bright idea to write a fanfic based on Alice in Wonderland, but I have since decided that I prefer reading other people's Wonderland fanfics. Instead, I wrote a Wonderland-inspired poem. But this is no ordinary poem. It is a sestina. The sestina is a complex form of poetry that revolves around the number six. It has six stanzas consisting of six lines each with an envoy (or envoi) of three lines at the end. To complicate matters, you may only choose from a selection of six words to end each line, and these end words must be used in a certain order. You can see a description of the wonderful sestina here.

Rediscovery

From the earliest ages we beg for stories,
Listen with enchanted hearts,
Cheer the heroes and fear the darkness,
Slowly shed the delight of childhood,
Give our imaginations over to time,
Let all the wonder seep down rabbit holes.

We shovel dirt into the rabbit holes,
Scoff at stories,
Forget the time,
Neglect our parched hearts,
Close the door on childhood,
And shut our eyes to the darkness.

We see on the edges of our vision scraps of darkness,
Feel the dirt shifting in the rabbit holes,
Recall with misty fondness the fables of childhood,
Or eschew the stories,
Say there is nothing wrong with our hearts,
Pour on old pleasures the numbing time.

But we feel we feel the hole gaping with time,
Once more we're shaken by the darkness,
We feel a summoning tug on our hearts,
Hands pulling us down rabbit holes,
An efflorescence of stories,
A return to childhood.

Feel the refreshing breath of childhood,
Grope for lost time,
Cling to the remembered stories,
Pick up your sword to wield against the darkness
Crawling from reopened rabbit holes,
Feel the beating of revived hearts.

Though enfeebled now, our hearts
Are still, we find, the hearts of childhood,
Longing to explore old rabbit holes,
Frantic at lost time,
Strong against the darkness,
Made stronger by stories.

The sustenance of childhood are stories;
Through them our hearts are guarded from the darkness;
Down rabbit holes, we have all we need of time.

Wow, that was fun! What do you think of the sestina?

I made the mistake of Googling "tarts" to see if I could find another picture that was better than mine and I found this,

which looks delicious, but is entirely the wrong type of tart. The Queen of Hearts' tarts must be red, don't you think? Or is that just my perception?

Anyway, here is a list of Wonderland goodness for you:

1. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll.

2. Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, also by Lewis Carroll.

3. Heartless, by Marissa Meyer.
This book . . . Oh. My. Goodness. This book. I love it. Please go read it.

4. Alice in Wonderland, 1999. This version sticks close to the book (both of the books, actually, since it brings in some elements from Through the Looking Glass). Which means it has almost zero plot. But it's whimsical, it's classic, and it's pretty much perfect. After watching this I have felt (almost) no desire to go watch another version. (Nope, I've never watched Disney's Alice in Wonderland. You can't make me.) Also, Gene Wilder plays the Mock Turtle. How much better can it get??

5. Alice in Wonderland, 2010. This film actually has a plot! My sister and I agree that it's more like a sequel to Alice in Wonderland than a retelling.

6. Alice Through the Looking Glass, 2016. I watched this in theater with my sister and we both enjoyed it a lot.

7. There's also a series called The Looking Glass Wars, by Frank Beddor, the first book of which I picked up in a book shop. I read a few pages, didn't love the writing style, and therefore didn't buy it, but the premise was very intriguing. (Wow, figuring out the spelling of "intriguing" took, like, six tries.) Basically, Alice is actually from Wonderland and she's trying to get back because there's a war going on between the Heart, Spade, Club, and Diamond families. She's asked Charles Dodgson (i.e. Lewis Carroll) to record her version of events to raise awareness about Wonderland, but he writes it as the cute fairytale we know today. And that's about all I know. Give it a try. Or . . . not.

8. I just found another book that tells the backstory of the Queen of Hearts. It's called–wait for it–Queen of Hearts. It's written by Colleen Oakes. Apparently it's a bit dark.

I hope I've inspired you! Or at least amused you.

Thanks for stopping by!
KB