The Hunting of the Snark
Robert Yates offers a stammering perspective of Lewis Carroll's poem

To the horror of all who were present that day,
He uprose in full evening dress,
And with senseless grimaces endeavoured to say
What his tongue could no longer express.

This is perhaps the most obvious description of stammering in a poem whose account of the search for the legendary Snark, seems to symbolise the various stages in a stammerer's quest for fluency or freedom of expression.

The poem portrays, in an appropriately convoluted fashion, a ship crew's hunt for an elusive creature known as a Snark. Eventually they found a Snark, but it turns out to be a particularly nasty specimen known as a Boojum, and the crewmember who discovers the creature is literally en-gulfed by silence.

The poem is divided into eight "Fits", most of which do little to advance the narrative: a clear analogy for the stammerer's struggle for expression. In addition, Carroll takes the traditional ballad device of repetition to such lengths that it becomes a major theme of the poem. The names of all the crewmembers begin with "B", with one telling exception: someone who apparently does not know his name. As a stammerer, Carroll would have been used to the involuntary repetition of initial sounds - and he definitely had difficulty saying his own name. Lewis Carroll is a pseudonym; as a child he was teased for pronouncing his surname "Do-do-Dodgson". Hence Alice's Dodo* and similarly in "The Hunting of the Snark", the Jubjub bird.

We can see a phrasal repetition, as well as a stammerer's attempt to be heard, and the resulting anxiety, in the Baker's conversation with the Bellman:

"It is this, it is this - We have heard that before!"
The Bellman indignantly said.
And the Baker replied "Let me say it once more,
It is this, it is this that I dread!"

In Fit the Sixth (The Barrister's Dream) the Snark takes the role of judge, jury, barrister and even witnesses, as the rest of the court are prevented from speaking:

"You must know -" said the Judge: but the Snark exclaimed "Fudge!"

The Snark overcomes the court with its glib fluency; little matter that its arguments are absurd and it succeeds in having its own client convicted. Verbal fluency is all that matters, not justice. This is surely a damning indictment of the fluent world

But if the Snark is a symbol for ridiculous fluency, it is also symbolic of stammering; as can be seen when the nameless crewmember encounters the creature:

"He is waving his hands, he is wagging his head,
He has certainly found a Snark!"

"As if stung by a spasm", he shouts out "the ominous words 'It's a Boo'", falls into a chasm, and is silent for evermore. (Some of the crew hear the unfortunate man finally get out the last syllable "-jum", but others only hear "a weary and wandering sigh".)

I have only scratched the surface of Carroll's stammering references, and I would urge any interested BSA members to read "The Hunting of the Snark" themselves. You may agree with me that the poem would never have been written had Carroll been fluent, but is the fruit of his sufferings as a stammerer.

From the Autumn 2001 edition of Speaking Out

*Addendum
by Edward Wakeling, Editor of Lewis Carroll's Diaries

There is an error in Robert Yates's article concerning the myth that the Dodo is a reference to Lewis Carroll's (Rev. Charles L. Dodgson's) speech impairment. It is suggested in various biographies (probably where Mr. Yates found it) that Dodgson is associated as the Dodo in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland because of the way he introduced himself - Mr. Do-do-Dodgson.

Now that Dodgson's diaries have been published in an unabridged form (tenth and final volume due out this month), and we have copies of letters to his speech therapist, Henry Rivers, we know about the nature of his speech problems. He suffered from a speech hesitation - not a repetition of words or sounds. Strong consonants, particularly the letter "p" caused him problems, particularly when reading aloud. General speech was very much under control. Dodgson is associated with the Dodo, but for different reasons.

August 2007