Jabberwocky

“The Walrus and the Carpenter” by Lewis Carroll (1871)

This poem was published (as was “Jabberwocky”) as a part of Through the Looking Glass in 1871. It occurs in the fourth chapter, titled Tweedledum and Tweedledee, when the two brothers recite the poem to Alice. In the poem, a Walrus and a Carpenter are walking along the shore, lamenting the fact that there is so much sand, when they happen upon a bunch of oysters, which the Walrus then invites to join him and the Carpenter in their walk. The oysters do so, and the walk continues. But it turns out, Walrus’s invitation was a trick, as both the Walrus and the Carpenter eat all of the little oysters that had joined them on their walk.

“The Hunting of the Snark” by Lewis Carroll (1876)

Published in 1876, five years after the publication of “Jabberwocky,” this long Nonsense poem uses some of the neologisms, or words coined by Carroll, that first appeared in “Jabberwocky,” including “Bandersnatch,” “beamish,” “frumious,” “galumphing,” “jubjub,” “outgrabe,” and “uffish.” “The Hunting of the Snark” is the story of how 10 characters, the descriptions of which all begin with the letter “b” (a Bellman, a Boots, a Bonnet maker, a Barrister, a Broker, a Billiard-marker, a Banker, a Butcher, a Beaver, and a Baker), set out to hunt the Snark—a creature, it turns out, that may not be the Snark at all, but may be a dangerous and deadly Boojum instead.