The Hunting of the Snark Gardner sees the poem as dealing with existential angst, and states that the Baker may be Carroll's satire of himself, pointing to the fact that the Baker was named after a beloved uncle, as was Carroll, and that the two were around the same age at the time of the writing of the poem. Alternatively, Larry Shaw of the fan magazine "Inside and Science Fiction Advertiser" suggests that the Boots, being the Snark, actually murdered the Baker. Also references to religious issues had been suggested, like the Baker's 42 boxes being a reference to Thomas Cranmer's "Forty-Two Articles" with a
Boeing Duveen and The Beautiful Soup songs' lyrics were adapted from poems from "Through the Looking-Glass" by Lewis Carroll, and Carroll was credited as co-writer with Hutt. Hutt would later reflect "I'd learnt the guitar in the Fifties, but I couldn't write words". Hutt played sitar on "Which Dreamed It". Initial copies of the single featured a picture sleeve reproducing John Tenniel's original illustration of the Jabberwock. The band's name also comes from a poem by Lewis Carroll, "Beautiful Soup", from "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". Both sides of the single were included in the Rubble series - "Jabberwock" in the 14th volume and "Which Dreamed It"