On the weekend, as we were travelling through time and space as one does with international travel, I entertained myself for some of the time by trying to recall the lines of poetry that lurked disused in my mind.
One had me stumped.

I recalled:
“You are old, Father William, the young man said,
And the hair that is left you is grey….”
but I could go no further.

When we landed, I googled it to refresh my memory. Of course, I discovered that my memory had played me false. Not the first time, my darling husband would say! :(  I have no idea how I came upon the variation that was stuck in my head, but it is persistent still.

For those whose memories need a jolt, the verse should read:

“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?”

To read Father William’s delightful response and the rest of Lewis Carroll’s poem, you can find it in “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” or at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Are_Old,_Father_William

It has prompted me to find other poems I have not visited in some time to see what I can do with those. Stay tuned to see what else I find.