Preface To Hunting Of The Snark Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCD A EFGAGBH AIJKLGMNOPKAAQIA RSA KTKAUVJI UWX YMAAATAA A JZT X| PREFACE | A |
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| If and the thing is wildly possible the charge of writing | B |
| nonsense were ever brought against the author of this brief but | C |
| instructive poem it would be based I feel convinced on the line | D |
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| Then the bowsprit got mixed with the rudder sometimes'' | A |
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| In view of this painful possibility I will not as I might appeal | E |
| indignantly to my other writings as a proof that I am incapable of | F |
| such a deed I will not as I might point to the strong moral | G |
| purpose of this poem itself to the arithmetical principles so | A |
| cautiously inculcated in it or to its noble teachings in Natural | G |
| History I will take the more prosaic course of simply explaining | B |
| how it happened | H |
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| The Bellman who was almost morbidly sensitive about appearances | A |
| used to have the bowsprit unshipped once or twice a week to be | I |
| revarnished and it more than once happened when the time came for | J |
| replacing it that no one on board could remember which end of the | K |
| ship it belonged to They knew it was not of the slightest use to | L |
| appeal to the Bellman about it he would only refer to his Naval | G |
| Code and read out in pathetic tones Admiralty Instructions which | M |
| none of them had ever been able to understand so it generally ended | N |
| in its being fastened on anyhow across the rudder The helmsman | O |
| used to stand by with tears in his eyes he knew it was all wrong | P |
| but alas Rule of the Code No one shall speak to the Man at the | K |
| Helm'' had been completed by the Bellman himself with the words | A |
| and the Man at the Helm shall speak to no one'' So remonstrance | A |
| was impossible and no steering could be done till the next | Q |
| varnishing day During these bewildering intervals the ship usually | I |
| sailed backwards | A |
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| This office was usually undertaken by the Boots who found in it | R |
| a refuge from the Baker's constant complaints about the insufficient | S |
| blacking of his three pairs of boots | A |
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| As this poem is to some extent connected with the lay of the | K |
| Jabberwock let me take this opportunity of answering a question that | T |
| has often been asked me how to pronounce slithy toves'' The | K |
| i'' in slithy'' is long as in writhe'' and toves'' is | A |
| pronounced so as to rhyme with groves'' Again the first o'' in | U |
| borogoves'' is pronounced like the o'' in borrow'' I have | V |
| heard people try to give it the sound of the o'' in worry'' | J |
| Such is Human Perversity | I |
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| This also seems a fitting occasion to notice the other hard words in | U |
| that poem Humpty Dumpty's theory of two meanings packed into one | W |
| word like a portmanteau seems to me the right explanation for all | X |
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| For instance take the two words fuming'' and furious'' Make up | Y |
| your mind that you will say both words but leave it unsettled which | M |
| you will say first Now open your mouth and speak If your thoughts | A |
| incline ever so little towards fuming'' you will say | A |
| fuming furious'' if they turn by even a hair's breadth towards | A |
| furious'' you will say furious fuming'' but if you have that | T |
| rarest of gifts a perfectly balanced mind you will say | A |
| frumious'' | A |
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| Supposing that when Pistol uttered the well known words | A |
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| Under which king Bezonian Speak or die '' | - |
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| Justice Shallow had felt certain that it was either William or | J |
| Richard but had not been able to settle which so that he could not | Z |
| possibly say either name before the other can it be doubted that | T |
| rather than die he would have gasped out Rilchiam '' | - |
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| 'Lewis Carroll' | X |
Lewis Carroll
(1)
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