Hunting Of The Snark

The whole thing can be found at http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgibin/browse-mixed?id=CarSnar&tag=public&images=images/modeng&data=/lv1/Archive/eng-parsed

-- PaulChisholm

I suspect that Lewis Carroll's "The Hunting Of The Snark" is really about software development:


        I engage with the Snark -- every night after dark -- 

        In a dreamy, delirious fight.

        I serve it with greens in those shadowy scenes,

        And I use it for striking a light.


        But if ever I meet with a Boojum, that day,

        In a moment (of this I am sure)

        I shall softly and silently vanish away --

        And the notion I cannot endure!

-- JamesCollins

And so I can add my favorite quote about conventional signs (see PoemsAboutMethodology) and the one I was thinking of for Portmanteau in HeadCoach, how coach reminds me of cockroach:

: "...two meanings packed into one word like a portmanteau, seems to me the right explanation for all. For instance, take the two words 'fuming' and 'furious.' Make up your mind that you will say both words, but leave it unsettled which you will say first. Now open your mouth and speak. If your thoughts incline ever so little towards 'fuming,' you will say 'fuming-furious;' if they turn, by even a hair's breadth, towards 'furious,' you will say 'furious-fuming;' but if you have the rarest of gifts, a perfectly balanced mind, you will say "frumious."

: -- AlistairCockburn in Wonderland...

I've always thought there is a world of truth hidden in this poem! The following (also from the prologue) is a scary depiction of several large projects I've witnessed:

: "The Bellman, who was almost morbidly sensitive about appearances, used to have the bowsprit unshipped once or twice a week to be revarnished, and it more than once happened, when the time came for replacing it, that no one on board could remember which end of the ship it belonged to. They knew it was not of the slightest use to appeal to the Bellman about it -- he would only refer to his Naval Code, and read out in pathetic tones Admiralty Instructions which none of them had ever been able to understand -- so it generally ended in its being fastened on, anyhow, across the rudder. The helmsman used to stand by with tears in his eyes; he knew it was all wrong, but alas! Rule 42 of the Code, 'No one shall speak to the Man at the Helm,' had been completed by the Bellman himself with the words 'and the Man at the Helm shall speak to no one.' So remonstrance was impossible, and no steering could be done till the next varnishing day. During these bewildering intervals the ship usually sailed backwards. "

(Also note the mystical number 42, which pops up all over the place in the Snark and went on to further fame in The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy)!

-- BillBarnett

There is no truth barring the rumor that OmnigonInternational's corkboard once bore:


        They hunted till darkness came on, but they found

        Not a button, nor feather, nor reflection,

        By which they could tell that they stood on the ground

        Where the Baker had met with the Distinction.


        In the midst of the word he was trying to say,

        In the midst of his laughter and glee,

        He had softly and suddenly vanished away---

        For the Distinction was an Attractor, you see...