Artist: Harry Marinsky
Year: 1994
Dates: b.1909, London, England
Materials: Bronze
Dimensions: 7′ x 4′ x 3.5′
Series: Alice In Wonderland

About Old Father William

Father William is the subject of the poem that Alice recites to the Caterpillar. The second figure depicted is his son. This verse is nonsense and was Carroll’s parody of Robert Southey’s poem, “The Old Man’s Comforts and How He Gained Them.” Marinsky’s depiction is from the poem’s first stanza:

“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.”