The Hunting of the Snark Becker Lennon, the poem's "motif of loss of name or identity" is typical of Carroll's work. Richard Kelly writes that the poem contains a "theme of annihilation." Furthermore, Edward Guiliano feels that the "Snark" is within the nonsense tradition of Thomas Hood and, especially, W. S. Gilbert, the librettist of the famous Gilbert and Sullivan team. According to him, a case can be made for a direct influence of Gilbert's Bab Ballads on "The Hunting of the Snark", based on the fact that Carroll was well-acquainted with the comic writing and the theatre of his age. In response to various
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"