What can you tell me about the poem 'You Are Old Father William' by Lewis Carroll?

Answer 1

In this poem, the son is very age-obsessed because he keeps reminding his father of how old he is. The son repeatedly tells the father that he is old and asks him why he does the things he does now. The father tells his son that when he was young, he was scared of doing things that are risky or scary but now, his age does not matter to him and is just a number. The son is very arrogant in a way because all the thinks of his father is a age and questions his actions. Despite the fact that the father is old, he seems pretty content with the fact he is getting older and at the end seems annoyed with his son. This poem has end rhythm, the rhythm scheme is ABAB, the poem has anapest, and it is burlesque it also has hyperbole in it. This poem is repeative in the sense that the son tells the father he's old, the son questions the father, the father rebuddles back and shuts the son up.

Answer 2

"You Are Old, Father William" is a poem written by Lewis Carroll that appears in his book, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." The poem humorously depicts a conversation between Alice and Father William, where Alice questions Father William's antics that defy his old age. The poem is a parody of Robert Southey's "The Old Man's Comforts and How He Gained Them."

Answer 3

Answer OneRobert Southey Answer TwoLewis Carroll ExplanationRobert Southey wrote The Old Man's Comforts And How He Gained Them, which featured the first line, "You are old, Father William, the young man cried," a poem which Lewis Carroll parodied in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Carroll's version is now very famous but the original is all but forgotten. From Southey's originalYou are old, Father William, the young man cried,

The few locks which are left you are grey;

You are hale, Father William, a hearty old man,

Now tell me the reason I pray.

In the days of my youth, Father William replied,

I remember'd that youth would fly fast,

And abused not my health and my vigour at first

That I never might need them at last.

From Carroll's parody`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.'

Answer 4

You Are Old Father William appears in Chapter 5 of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.
It is a parody of a poem which Victorian children were expected to memorize and recite, Robert Southey's "The Old Man's Comforts And How He Gained Them" (1779):

You are old, Father William the young man cried,

The few locks which are left you are grey;

You are hale, Father William, a hearty old man,

Now tell me the reason, I pray.

.

In the days of my youth, Father William replied,

I remember'd that youth would fly fast,

And abused not my health and my vigour at first,

That I never might need them at last.

.

You are old, Father William, the young man cried,

And pleasures with youth pass away;

And yet you lament not the days that are gone,

Now tell me the reason, I pray.

.

In the days of my youth, Father William replied,

I remember'd that youth could not last;

I thought of the future, whatever I did,

That I never might grieve for the past.

.

You are old, Father William, the young man cried,

And life must be hastening away;

You are cheerful, and love to converse upon death,

Now tell me the reason, I pray.

.

I am cheerful, youman, Father William replied,

Let the cause thy attention engage;

In the days of my youth I remember'd my God!

And He hath not forgotten my age

This is almost certainly the poem which the Caterpillar expects to hear when he tells Alice to repeat 'You Are Old Father William' In his introductuion to Penguin's Centenary edition of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, Hugh Haughton said that Carroll's parody "undermines the pious didacticism of Southey's original and gives Father William an eccentric vitality that rebounds upon his idiot questioner"

Answer 5

This poem is a parody made by Lewis carol of an original poem "the Old man 's comfort and how he gains it" by Robert Southey".This is a meaningless poem which was especially parodies by Lewis Carol to add it in his book "adventures of alice in the wonderland".Basically in this poem a son asks several questions from his father as he thinks that his father is rather old and the stunts performed by him does not suit his age.He basically was arrogant and overly concerned with age.While his father now seems to enjoy his elderly life. The son then asks questions from his father about how he maintains his health and how is he able to perform stunts in an old age.These questions don't have any particular meaning at all.In this way the Father answers his son's questions and gave reasons which were senseless as this is a parody.After that Father William tells his son not to get very frank with him .Three questions were asked by his son and so now the Father tells his son to get lost or he'll be kicked down the stairs by him.So as we see this story has no such meaning or idea behind it.It was just a parody and was made to put this in a book.

Answer 6

In Robert Southey's poem "You are old Father William" an elderly man explains to his young interlocutor that he is content now to be old because when a young man he always lived his life in such a way that he would have no regrets later on.

Lewis Carroll parodied the poem to destruction by rewriting it from the point of view of an old man who enjoys being old because being old is enjoyable. The young man in Carroll's poem is a patsy:- embarrassed and even made to look ridiculous by the vigour and enthusiasm of the older man he is talking to.

Robert Southeys poem was "the old mans comforts and how he gained them"

"You are old father William" is by Lewis Carroll, It was a parody!

Answer 7

It's a humorous poem, about the many ways in which Father William is unusual for a man of his age.

Answer 8

What advice the young man give to father William

Answer 9

In this poem, the son is very age-obsessed because he keeps reminding his father of how old he is. The son repeatedly tells the father that he is old and asks him why he does the things he does now. The father tells his son that when he was young, he was scared of doing things that are risky or scary but now, his age does not matter to him and is just a number. The son is very arrogant in a way because all the thinks of his father is a age and questions his actions. Despite the fact that the father is old, he seems pretty content with the fact he is getting older and at the end seems annoyed with his son. This poem has end rhythm, the rhythm scheme is ABAB, the poem has anapest, and it is burlesque it also has hyperbole in it. This poem is repeative in the sense that the son tells the father he's old, the son questions the father, the father rebuddles back and shuts the son up.

Answer 10

Why is the young man worried about father William?