Snark (Lewis Carroll) Snark (Lewis Carroll) The snark is a fictional animal species created by Lewis Carroll in his nonsense poem "The Hunting of the Snark". His descriptions of the creatures were, in his own words, unimaginable, and he wanted that to remain so. According to Carroll, the initial inspiration to write the poem – which he called an "agony in eight fits" – was the final line, "For the snark was a boojum, you see". Carroll was asked repeatedly to explain the snark. In all cases, his answer was he did not know and could not explain. Later commentators have offered many
The Grave (poem) The Grave (poem) The Grave is a blank verse poem by the Scottish poet Robert Blair. It is the work for which he is primarily renowned. According to Blair, in a letter he wrote to Dr. Dodderidge, the greater part of the poem was composed before he became a minister, Edinburgh editor and publisher John Johnstone stating that it was composed whilst he was still a student, although "probably corrected and amplified by his more matured judgement". The poem, 767 lines long, is an exemplar of what became known as the school of graveyard poetry. Part of the poem's continued