The Hunting of the snark is a poem written by Lewis Carroll.
It’s divided into 8 different verses.
The first one is titled The Landing.
A group of people have landed on dry ground.
They include the Bellman, the maker of Bonnets, the barrister, the broker, the billiard marker,
the banker, the butcher, the baker, and the beaver.
One member of the crew forgot his own name.
He also forgot all his stuff on the beach that they departed from.
Thankfully, he’s wearing 7 coats and 3 pairs of boots.
He is also well liked by the crew because he is courageous.
That courage, they figure, will be essential in capturing the Snark.
The butcher talks about killing the beaver, which frightens the bellman and the beaver.
They wanted to separate the butcher and put him on his own ship.
Unfortunately, that would be impossible to do since they only had one.
The beaver wants to protect himself, so he gets a 2nd dagger-proof coat.
Then, the banker offers him insurance against fire or hail.
The second verse of the poem is titled The Bellman’s Speech.
In this verse, we learn that he’s navigating with a blank map which everyone is happy about.
They reason to themselves that having a blank map is a good thing since it’s so easy to
understand.
Unfortunately, the Bellman’s navigation was bizarre.
He would yell random commands.
But, finally, they land.
The Bellman then tells everyone what the 5 signs of a snark is.
The first sign is that it's taste is “meagre and hollow”, the second is it gets up late,
the third is its slow, the 4th is the bathing machines it carries, and the fifth is its
ambition.
The 3rd verse in the poem begins and is titled The Baker’s Tale.
The baker begins his sad tale by telling us about his poor mother and father.
The Bellman interrupts him and tells him to “skip all that part”.
So he does, and skips 40 years up until when he boards the ship.
He describes bidding farewell to his uncle, but the Bellman rings his bell and tells him
to skip that part as well.
He moves on to describe how to hunt the snark.
You seek it with thimbles and hunt it with forks.
You threaten its life with a railway share and charm it with soap.
The Bellman confirms that this is the exact method he learned.
Then, he warns everyone to be careful in case the snark is actually a Boojum.
Boojums cause people to vanish.
The 4th verse begins and is titled the Hunting.
The Bellman gives the rest of his speech.
First, he restates how to hunt the snark.
Meanwhile, everyone else is getting ready for the hunt.
In the Beavers lesson, they are hunting for the snark.
The butcher makes a plan to catch the snark.
Meanwhile, there’s strange creatures in this land.
They hear a scream and their life flashes before their eyes.
Thankfully, they realize the scream is just a bird.
The butcher gets a paper and starts doing math.
Then, he gives the beaver a lesson on the bird, which is a species called Jubjub.
The butcher states that the Jubjub is an eccentric type of bird.
Yet, it tastes delicious.
He continues to talk for a long time, and says that he considers the beaver to be his
friend.
The 6th verse is the Barrister dreaming.
In this dream he sees the snark in a courtroom defending a pig accused of leaving his sty.
The witnesses testify that the sty was empty.
Then, the snark twists the meaning of what the witnesses stated.
The jury decides not to reach a decision, and asks the snark to make the decision for
them.
The snark rules that the pig is guilty and some of the jury members faint.
The snark sentences the pig, but unfortunately it has been dead for years while the trial
went on and on.
The bellman rings a bell and wakes up the Barrister.
The 7th verse is titled the Bankers Fate.
A creature called a Bandersnatch grabs the banker.
The banker tries to pay his ransom with a check but fails.
Then he faints, but the crew chases off the Bandersnatch and rescues him.
Then they leave the banker.
The 8th verse is called the vanishing.
They have finally found the snark and are chasing after it.
The baker reaches the snark and calls out for the others.
A moment later, he screams in a horrified voice that its a “Boo…” but he’s cut
off.
They try and find where he met the snark, but he’s completely vanished.
The snark was actually a Boojum.
The End