Which poem does the Caterpillar ask Alice to recite?

The Caterpillar asks Alice to recite “You Are Old, Father William.” The exchange occurs in Chapter 5 of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, usually titled “Advice from a Caterpillar.”

Alice has just been struggling to remember who she is and says that she can no longer recite poems correctly. She gives the familiar moral verse “How Doth the Little Busy Bee” a Wonderland transformation, producing “How Doth the Little Crocodile.” The Caterpillar then asks her to repeat “You Are Old, Father William,” which she manages to recite in full.

Carroll’s poem is a parody of Robert Southey’s 1799 moral poem “The Old Man’s Comforts and How He Gained Them.” Southey’s original praises sober, disciplined old age; Carroll’s version turns the lesson upside down, presenting an improbably agile Father William who performs acrobatics and eats strange foods.

The other options are nearby Carroll poems: “The Lobster Quadrille” belongs to the Mock Turtle’s story, “How Doth the Little Crocodile” is Alice’s mistaken version, and “Speak Roughly to Your Little Boy” is the Duchess’s song.