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
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)