Twas brillig as the quonsar snark'd

March 19, 2005 12:19 PM

"Just the place for a Snark!" the Bellman cried,
As he landed his crew with care;
Supporting each man on the top of the tide
By a finger entwined in his hair.
Lewis Carroll's "The Hunting of the Snark", Fit the First: The Landing.
posted by DeepFriedTwinkies (8 comments total)

:)
posted by caddis at 1:12 PM on March 19, 2005

"His form is ungainly -- his intellect small -- "
(So the Bellman would often remark)
"But his courage is perfect! And that, after all,
Is the thing that one needs with a Snark."

[this is good]
posted by schyler523 at 3:31 PM on March 19, 2005

"Taking Three as the subject to reason about --
A convenient number to state --
We add Seven, and Ten, and then multiply out
By One Thousand diminished by Eight.

"The result we proceed to divide, as you see,
By Nine Hundred and Ninety Two:
Then subtract Seventeen, and the answer must be
Exactly and perfectly true."

((3 + 7 + 10) * (1000 - 8)/ 992) - 17 = Exactly and Perfectly True?

Yes indeed.
posted by schyler523 at 3:42 PM on March 19, 2005

[CAST RECORDING]
posted by muckster at 4:43 PM on March 19, 2005

I owned "The Hunting of the Snark" as a kid. Only later did I encounter Alice in Wonderland and I recall my first reaction was "Oh cool! Written by the same guy who wrote 'Hunting of the Snark'" :)
posted by vacapinta at 8:42 PM on March 19, 2005

You boil it in sawdust, you salt it in glue, you condense it with locusts and tape; still keeping one principal object in view: to preserve its symmetrical shape.
posted by gubo at 10:29 PM on March 19, 2005

Though out of print, Martin Gardner's The Annotated Snark is well worth seeking out and reading.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 9:12 AM on March 21, 2005

Last MF thread (iirc MetaTalk), commented the theory: the Snark is the Butcher.
posted by thomcatspike at 10:56 AM on March 21, 2005