Lewis Carroll gives "1872" as the date of publication.) Its somewhat darker mood possibly reflects changes in Dodgson's life. His father's death in 1868 plunged him into a depression that lasted some years. In 1876, Dodgson produced his next great work, "The Hunting of the Snark", a fantastical "nonsense" poem exploring the adventures of a bizarre crew of nine tradesmen and one beaver, who set off to find the snark. It received largely mixed reviews from Carroll's contemporary reviewers, but was enormously popular with the public, having been reprinted seventeen times between 1876 and 1908, and has seen various adaptations into musicals,
The Mouse's Tale 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) explains how a cur called Fury plotted to condemn