The Hunting of the Snark letters asking for the meaning of the poem, Carroll often replied that he did not know. However, in an 1896 reply to one letter, he agreed with one interpretation of the poem as an allegory for the search for happiness. Widely varying interpretations of "The Hunting of the Snark" have been suggested: an allegory for tuberculosis, a mockery of the Tichborne case, a satire of the controversies between religion and science, the repression of Carroll's sexuality, and a piece against vivisection, among others. According to Cohen, the poem represents a "voyage of life", with the Baker's disappearance caused by his
A Dream of the Past: Sir Isumbras at the Ford of Lewis Carroll has been sourced to paintings: "The White Knight echoes Millais's "Sir Isumbras at the Ford". " A Dream of the Past: Sir Isumbras at the Ford A Dream of the Past: Sir Isumbras at the Ford (1857) is a painting by John Everett Millais depicting a medieval knight helping two young peasant children over a swollen river. The children are carrying heavy burdens of wood for winter fuel. Though the title refers to the medieval poem "Sir Isumbras", the painting does not illustrate a scene from the original text. However Millais's friend, the writer Tom Taylor, wrote