More from the Looking Glass

 

My copy of one of the illustrations of the poem "The Walrus and the Carpenter from "Alice Through the Looking Glass"

Staying with “Alice through the Looking Glass” today I copied one of the illustrations for Carroll’s poem “The Walrus and the Carpenter”. Poems feature in both of the Alice Books. In “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” the Caterpillar tells Alice the rhyme of “You Are Old, Father William”. In Looking Glass Alice finds a book, where the poem “Jabberwocky” is written in mirror language. Then in chapter four, where Alice meets Tweedledum and Tweedledee they recite this “The Walrus and the Carpenter”. This narrative poem of 108 lines in 18 stanzas tells how the eponymous walrus and carpenter invite oysters to take a walk along the beach with them, and then, having tied the oysters out, they proceed to eat all of them.

Over the years different commentators have tried hard to find deeper and hidden meetings within the poem. It’s probably not wrong to see it as a warning to beware of following those who really don’t have your best interests at heart. But many in their time have gone way beyond this. One write chose to see The Walrus as a satire on Walter Pater and John Ruskin. Others have chosen to see the inclusion of the Carpenter as a comment on Christianity. Well, the fact is that the carpenter might just as easily have been a butterfly or a baronet. Both have three syllables, and Lewis Carroll offered to use any of them to make it easier for Teniel to illustrate, which kind of blows the Christ allegory theory out of the water. Personally, I don’t think you need to read into it any more than is already there. The walrus is an out and out bounder, and the carpenter is his slightly stupider accomplice.

As a footnote, John Lennon loved the Alic books himself, and was inspired by the poem to write “I am The Walrus” by this poem. Apparently he was rather upset when he realised that the walrus is actually one of the bad guys in the original poem.

Ironically, this illustration has been used as the inspiration for many a political cartoon since, with various figures being portrayed as both of the principals. It’s a brilliant piece of work. I’m sure I’m not the first person to suggest that the cliffs behind the carpenter look very similar to the white cliffs of Dover.