The Hunting of the Snark
Carroll's nonsense epic in eight fits.
What this poem is
The Hunting of the Snark, subtitled An Agony, in Eight Fits, is a poem by the English writer Lewis Carroll. It is typically categorised as a nonsense poem. Written between 1874 and 1876, it borrows the setting, some creatures, and eight portmanteau words from Carroll's earlier poem "Jabberwocky" in his children's novel Through the Looking-Glass (1871).
Macmillan published The Hunting of the Snark in the United Kingdom at the end of March 1876, with nine illustrations by Henry Holiday. It had mixed reviews from reviewers, who found it strange. The first printing of the poem consisted of 10,000 copies. There were two reprints by the conclusion of the year; in total, the poem was reprinted 17 times between 1876 and 1908. The poem also has been adapted for musicals, movies, opera, plays, and music.
The narrative follows a crew of ten trying to hunt the Snark, a creature which may turn out to be a highly dangerous Boojum. The only crew member to find the Snark quietly vanishes, leading the narrator to explain that the Snark was a Boojum after all.
The Hunting of the Snark shares its fictional setting with Lewis Carroll's earlier poem "Jabberwocky" published in his 1871 children's novel Through the Looking-Glass. Eight nonsense words from "Jabberwocky" appear in The Hunting of the Snark: bandersnatch, beamish, frumious, galumphing, jubjub, mimsiest (which previously appeared as mimsy in "Jabberwocky"), outgrabe, and uffish. In a letter to the mother of his young friend Gertrude Chataway, Carroll described the domain of the Snark as "an island frequented by the jubjub and the bandersnatch – no doubt the very island where the jabberwock was slain."
Adapted from the Wikipedia article “The Hunting of the Snark” (revision 1369348800), used under CC BY-SA 4.0. Laurel's own notes and measurements are not from Wikipedia.
Measured across the book
Across its 580 lines, 80% of stressed syllables fall on the beat (95% interval 79% to 82%). Alliteration runs at 0.99 times what shuffling the words would give (0.27 observed against 0.27 expected). 8% of the lines have a feminine ending.
Baselines and intervals are described in the methods.
Contents
About this text
Public domain. Text from The Hunting of the Snark: An Agony in Eight Fits, Project Gutenberg ebook #13. Free to read, print, copy and reuse.