“I have a fairy by my side Which says I must not sleep, When once in pain I loudly cried It said "You must not weep" If, full of mirth, I smile and grin, It says "You must not laugh" When once I wished to drink some gin It said "You must not quaff". When once a meal I wished to taste It said "You must not bite" When to the wars I went in haste It said "You must not fight". "What may I do?" at length I cried, Tired of the painful task. The fairy quietly replied, And said "You must not ask". Moral: "You mustn't.”

English author, poet, mathematician, photographer, and Anglican deacon

Lewis Carroll was the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, an English writer, poet, mathematician, photographer, and Anglican deacon. He is best known for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, both central works of Victorian literature. His writing is marked by wordplay, logic, and fantasy, and he is also remembered for the poems Jabberwocky and The Hunting of the Snark. Those works are often described as literary nonsense, and some of the odd logic in Alice reflects his published interests in mathematical logic.