The Hunting of the Snark he delights to tell."" The poem was printed in "The Hunting of the Snark" with permission from Chataway's mother. Included with many copies of the first edition of "The Hunting of the Snark" was Carroll's three-page, religious tract to his young readers, "An Easter Greeting to Every Child Who Loves "Alice"". Largely written on 5 February 1876, "An Easter Greeting" explores the concept of innocence and eternal life through biblical allusions and literary allusions to Romantic writers William Blake and William Wordsworth. Gardner suggests that Carroll included the tract as a way of balancing the dark tone of the poem.
A-Hunting We Will Go Each consequent verse gets modified by putting in a different animal: Earlier versions of the song switch the words "a-hunting" with "a-roving", dating back to old roving drinking songs from the 16th century. A-Hunting We Will Go A-Hunting We Will Go is a popular folk song and nursery rhyme by English composer Thomas Arne. The "a-" is an archaic intensifying prefix; compare "Here We Come A-wassailing/Here We Come A-caroling" and lyrics to "The Twelve Days of Christmas" (e.g., “Six geese a-laying”). <poem>A-hunting we will go, A-hunting we will go Heigh-ho, the derry-o, A-hunting we will go. A-hunting we will go,