The Snark was a Boojum, you see -- a Poetry Friday post

[kellyrfineman]

Until I began doing my Poetry Friday posts last May, I didn't realize what a Lewis Carroll fan I seem to be. If you were to ask me my favorite poets, then or now, I probably wouldn't list Carroll. And yet. Here it is, another Carrollian post.

This one is because I only yesterday purchased The Annotated Hunting of the Snark: The Definitive

Comments

[lizjonesbooks]

Oh!!! I LOVE the Snark!!!

That is such a neat poem-- and I had no idea of the context. Fascinating!
Thanks for sharing!!

[kellyrfineman]

I am very much looking forward to reading The Definitive Edition, I can assure you. It has side notes and end notes and commentaries in it, as well. A true nerd's paradise.

[lizjonesbooks]

Kewl. I may have to seek that one out!!

[slatts]

THIS IS COOL!

I need to find out more, indeed.....and on the heels of my beatle-obsessive post, Lennon listed Carroll as a major influence to his writings.....

[kellyrfineman]

Indeed, I'm fairly sure that references to The Walrus were to Carroll's The Walrus and the Carpenter, including one of my favorite bits of rhyme:

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes -- and ships -- and sealing wax --
Of cabbages -- and kings --
And why the sea is boiling hot --
And whether pigs have wings."

I am the Eggman. I am the Walrus. Koo-koo-ka-choo. (One of my favorite things to state in a proclamative manner, btw. My kids find it puzzlingly odd.)

[wgwriter]

Oh, I LOVE that poem too! When I was in the fourth grade we had to pick a poem, memorize it, then recite it in front of the class. I picked "The Walrus and the Carpenter" and to this day can still remember most of it unaided. I think my favorite lines are:

"If seven maids with seven mops
swept the sea for half a year,
do you suppose," the Walrus said
"that they could get it clear?"

Also the bit about the oysters not having any feet. And it being odd that the sun was shining in the middle of the night. Oh, the whole she-bang!

But, yeah, it never would have occurred to me either to list Carroll as one of my favorite poets.

The book looks gorgeous. Enjoy!

[kellyrfineman]

I am enjoying it immensely! Although it's sort of funny that my current "diversionary" book is rife with footnotes and endnotes when my WIP is a biography that has me reading lots of other biographies, which are rife with footnotes and endnotes as well!

[dianemdavis]

I love your Friday Poetry writings. I've been dying to find someone that will dissect poems and discuss them. These are so interesting.

[kellyrfineman]

Why, thank you kindly! Come by any old Friday (and watch for April, since I do daily National Poetry Month posts).