Humpty Dumpty Rhymed on the Wall

We appear to be seeing the well red egg reading his own story.

New Sketches

The secret room...
It's no secret that the secret room has its origin in C.S. Lewis' "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe." But this closet is not Lewis' wardrobe. The owners of OzHouse love books. They love children's books especially--and write and illustrate them professionally. And so in their elaborate house they create an homage to Lewis by using a closet as the doorway to a playroom that is filled with books and toys and decor representing all sorts of fairy worlds. And if the doorway happens also to be magic.... Well that can happen when imagination takes over.

Humpty Dumpty's Fractured Mother Goose Rhymes

Wait For Winter

Happy floats the little lark

Gently flows the brook
A blessing falls on all the earth
 And yet—you’re reading a book!

 

Young Grimes

Young Grimes was alive.

He kicked  up his heels.
He kicked up his heels,
And fell on his head
Young Grimes was alive,
But he wished he was dead.

 

At Huntington Cross

At Huntington, Huntington, Huntington Cross

Where all the people, the people are lost
The high and the low, the left and the right
They wander all day; it’s a terrible sight
At Huntington, Huntington Cross.

 

The Pumpkin Eater’s Wife

Peter, Peter Pumpkin eater

Thought a pumpkin shell would keep her.
He would close the door and lock it
And hold the key in his own pocket.
And every night to sleep he’d go
And never dream of the window.

 

Oz the Great and Powerful, a quick review

Finally got to see "Oz the Great and Powerful." Quick review: It was better than feared, not as good as it should have been. The good stuff: The visiuals, the outlines of the story, the moments of homage to the classic film, the development of the Wicked Witch of the West--I loved the irony that the Wizard was the last straw that truned her Wicked. Nice use of smoke and mirrors too. The problems: The pounding of Hollywood's favorite cliche themes into the film: just believe and we'll triumph, we're all in this together, all we need is love, it's all about family. Another missed opportunity to make a movie about something. The romance between Oz and Glinda (another Hollywood boiler plate moment). This is not Baum's Glinda, which would be fine if the re-envisioning were clever, or interesting, or even original. The Wizard's acting. All I could think was "What would Morton Downey Jr. do in this role! And now I see how fabulous Frank Morgan was in this role." The telegraphing of the big balloon effect. The lame gift giving scene. And what was the point of the cyclone? A guy in a hot air balloon could just be blown to Oz.

As for the missing ruby/silver slippers/shoes--well, there is room for them to show up in a sequel now that the emerald jewel has been destroyed (though how an Emerald could be broken so easily is beyond me).

Humpty's Folly

Humpty Dumpty danced on the wall

Graceful and stylish and eager—and yet

“Be careful” they yelled, “in a breeze you could fall.”

Then he performed his pirouette

Without a single bead of sweat,

As if he could not imagine a fall

As if there were no danger at all.

“Oh, no,” he cried, you could see the pride,

“An earthquake couldn’t make me slide

From off this place,

I’ve too much grace

By half and then by half again.”

But “too much grace” is kind of a sin. 

“Call the king’s horses and call the king’s men—

Humpty Dumpty will do it again!”

He performed a pas de deux pour une

(For on his wall he was all alone

And treated the heckling rabble with scorn).

He did a buck-and-wing!

A la mode, organic, strictly Grade-A

He tripped

On his toes

And then floated away.

The gathering crowd all sputtered and groaned.

He laughed at their horror and floated on down.

He did the Salza, the Charleston, the fling,

The jitterbug, moonwalk, the jive, and the hustle—

With big calm eyes and a cool cool smile

And exquisite control of his every muscle—until

The king and all of his men roared down

In answer to the people’s call,

With all their horses to the center of town

To help the hapless dancing egg!

And they shook the ground with a mighty shake

That jiggered the land and boiled the lake

And put the very stones at stake

In Humpty’s wall, which grew contorted,

From pillar to post, the mortar unmortared

The crowd gave a gasp; the picture distorted—and

Humpty Dumpty never got the chance to dance the Morris.

Oh, had there been some sympathy for the yoke of the performer

Oh, if they had just let him dance, or had their hearts been warmer

Had someone let him have his pride

Forgiven him for being snide,

Though he was not a man, yet he

Drawing beauty from vanity

Would’ve put on a show for the world to see

O, everything a dance could be!

But you know the story, you know how it goes

Pride is a sin that leads to a fall

As push comes to shove

That’s the truth of it all.

So out oozed the yoke all over the bricks

The egg learned his lesson for all of his tricks

The price of his pride, the payment for sin,

Or leastways he would’ve if all of the king’s men

And all of his horses could’ve rebuilt his shell

And stuck him back in.

Available as Ebook too...

Look for OzHouse and other works by co-author Dennis Anfuso at

 www.Dennisanfuso.com

 

 

The Book Cover

A Selection of OzHouse Images

 

Charlie, Glinda, The Tin Man, the Woggle Bug and Pinnochio in the Emerald City

The OzHouse Emerald Flag

Early Humpty Dumpty Design

Sketch for Charles Emerson

The Baum Map of Oz

Buddy meets Rumplestiltskin

The full OzHouse flag