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"You Are Old, Father William" is a poem by
"You are old, Father William," the young man said, "And your hair has become very white; And yet you incessantly stand on your head— Do you think, at your age, it is right?" "In my youth," Father William replied to his son, "I feared it might injure the brain; But now that I'm perfectly sure I have none, Why, I do it again and again." "You are old," said the youth, "As I mentioned before, And have grown most uncommonly fat; Yet you turned a back-somersault in at the door— Pray, what is the reason of that?" "In my youth," said the sage, as he shook his grey locks, "I kept all my limbs very supple By the use of this ointment—one shilling the box— Allow me to sell you a couple?" "You are old," said the youth, "And your jaws are too weak For anything tougher than suet; Yet you finished the goose, with the bones and the beak— Pray, how did you manage to do it?" "In my youth," said his father, "I took to the law, And argued each case with my wife; And the muscular strength which it gave to my jaw, Has lasted the rest of my life." "You are old," said the youth, "one would hardly suppose That your eye was as steady as ever; Yet you balanced an eel on the end of your nose— What made you so awfully clever?" "I have answered three questions, and that is enough," Said his father; "don't give yourself airs! Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff? Be off, or I'll kick you down stairs!"
Like most poems in Alice, the poem is a
"Father William" was played by Sammy Davis, Jr. in the 1985 film.
In the Disney animated film Alice in Wonderland (1951) the first stanza of the poem is recited by Tweedledee and Tweedledum as a song.
They Might Be Giants recorded a song using the lyrics of the poem for the compilation album Almost Alice for the 2010 film, Alice in Wonderland.
Mathematical logic, Christ Church, Oxford, The Hunting of the Snark, Guildford, Stuttering
Lewis Carroll, Bbc, John Tenniel, Through the Looking-Glass, Alice (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)
G. K. Chesterton, Philosophy, University of Chicago, Scientific skepticism, Bertrand Russell
Lewis Carroll, Salvador Dalí, John Tenniel, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking-Glass
Lewis Carroll, Ringo Starr, Natalie Gregory, Irwin Allen, Alice (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)