The Hunting of The Snark..has anybody ever decoded this?

[ralph124c]

This poem by Lewis carrol has always intrigued me…it makes no sense to me. I always wondered about a phrase in it…“and the mome raths outgrabe”-does anybody know what the poem was intended to convey?

[Fretful_Porpentine]

That line is from Jabberwocky, not The Hunting of the Snark. As for what it means, fortunately Carroll was helpful enough to provide an explanation:

“And then ‘mome raths’?” said Alice. “If I’m not giving you too much trouble.”

“Well a ‘rath’ is a sort of green pig, but ‘mome’ I’m not certain about. I think it’s sort for ‘from home’–meaning that they’d lost their way, you know.”

“And what does ‘outgrabe’ mean?”

“Well, ‘outgribing’ is something between bellowing an whistling, with a kind of sneeze in the middle: however, you’ll hear it done, maybe–down in the wood yonder–and when you’ve once heard it, you’ll be quite content. Who’s been repeating all that hard stuff to you?”

“I read it in a book”, said Alice.

[rowrrbazzle]

If you want info on “The Hunting of the Snark” anyway, Martin Gardner did an annotated edition.

[Larry_Mudd]

Rule 42: Don’t talk about the meaning of The Hunting of the Snark.

(Sorry.)

The wackiest interpretation I ever heard suggested that it was some kind of prescient meditation on nuclear power-- the “snark” (rhymes with ‘quark!’ Wow!) being clean nuclear energy, and the “boojum” being catastrophic nuclear destruction. The trailing off of “It’s a boo—” hinted at “It’s a bomb!”

I’m not sure which side of the mushroom the author of that particular essay was nibbling on.

[Larry_Mudd]

…of course, I’m in no position to make fun of people for lunatic interpretations of Lewis Carroll.

[DocCathode]

This short story gives a wonderful interpretation of the Jaberwocky.

Remember that a wabe is the grass around a sundial.

It’s hard to say more without spoiling.

[DrFidelius]

and, one can use petroleum jelly to make the toves slithy, if I recall correctly.

I remember one analysis of Snark which proved it to be a murder mystery, with the Boots being the culprit. “It’s the Boo(ts)…”

[richardb]

I step away from the boards for a few days, and I almost miss this thread (no, I did not change my sig line for this thread; it’s as it always has been on these boards)!

I always thought that The Hunting of the Snark made perfect sense. I might not understand all the internal logic of this fanciful tale, but overall, the story is quite straightforward.

Of course, several dopers have already pointed out that the OP is actually asking a question about Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There. That one is a little less straightforward…

*Originally posted by rowrrbazzle *
**If you want info on “The Hunting of the Snark” anyway, Martin Gardner did an annotated edition. **

He also wrote an annotated Alice in Wonderland, which has excellent translations of Jabberwocky into French, German and several other languages. It always struck me as brilliant to effectively translate nonsense words!

[Ukulele_Ike]

Well, I never understood the rationale for serving the Snark with greens. A little steamed broccoli rabe with a squeeze of lemon is MUCH tastier.

It IS handy for striking a light, however.