Michael J. Stephan
Political Science
Poem: “Taylor Tim,” 2005

In composing the adjacent tribute to his favorite author, Stephan employed complex literary techniques similar to those Carroll himself had pioneered. “Taylor Tim,” a poem full of allusions to Death, contains six stanzas of six lines each; when this number appears in the work it acts as a double entendre for “six feet underground”—the common depth at which bodies are buried. The number of anagrams present (including the twenty-fifth line, which can be changed into a Latin phrase) echo Carroll’s superlative skills. Stephan’s detailed analysis of his mathematically inspired wordplay is included here so that readers can see the multiple levels of meaning present in the work.