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
The Mouse's Tale its rhyme structure is that of a tail rhyme. The Mouse's Tale "The Mouse's Tale" is a concrete poem by Lewis Carroll which appears in his novel "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". Though no formal title for the poem is given in the novel, the chapter title refers to "A Long Tale" and the Mouse introduces it by saying, "Mine is a long and sad tale!" Alice thinks the Mouse means its "tail", which makes her imagine the poem in its twisted, tail-like shape, as shown on the right: In the tale, the Mouse (speaking of itself in the third person)