The Bellman Is Ringing

Flopping Aces ^ | 08-16-12 | Skookum

[Starman417]

There is a curious incident in American literature, an incident that leaves many literate children snickering at an absurd situation. I am writing of the Bellman's bizarre odyssey, in Lewis Carroll's, “The Hunting Of The Snark”; however, this short epic poem of adventure and tragedy could be set in modern times, for it is eerily similar to our present situation. Yes, when we consider the absurdity of selling guns to drug cartels, and after hundreds of people are killed with those same weapons, proclaiming the need for tighter gun control, and giving a failed auto company to its union, with a cash infusion greater than our foreign graft (aid) and after liquidating all Republican dealerships, then proclaiming the still failing auto company a success, and stating out loud the need for doing the same thing to all American businesses during a campaign, the nonsensical verse of the "The Hunting Of The Snark" begins to seem logical.

The Bellman himself they all praised to the skies —
 Such a carriage, such ease and such grace!
Such solemnity, too! One could see he was wise,
 The moment one looked in his face!

He had bought a large map representing the sea,
 Without the least vestige of land:
And the crew were much pleased when they found it to be
 A map they could all understand.

“What’s the good of Mercator’s North Poles and Equators,
 Tropics, Zones, and Meridian Lines?”
So the Bellman would cry: and the crew would reply
 “They are merely conventional signs!

“Other maps are such shapes, with their islands and capes!
 But we’ve got our brave Captain to thank:
(So the crew would protest) “that he’s bought us the best —
 A perfect and absolute blank!”

This was charming, no doubt; but they shortly found out
 That the Captain they trusted so well
Had only one notion for crossing the ocean,
 And that was to tingle his bell.

He was thoughtful and grave — but the orders he gave
 Were enough to bewilder a crew.
When he cried “Steer to starboard, but keep her head
larboard!”
 What on earth was the helmsman to do?

Then the bowsprit got mixed with the rudder sometimes:
 A thing, as the Bellman remarked,
That frequently happens in tropical climes,
 When a vessel is, so to speak, “snarked.”

But the principal failing occurred in the sailing,
 And the Bellman, perplexed and distressed,
Said he had hoped, at least, when the wind blew due East,
 That the ship would not travel due West!

Lewis Carroll, The Hunting Of The Snark, 1876

The idea of a blank map is ambiguous and preposterous, for who would be so foolish; the concept is one for children and their imaginations. However the poem is not suitable for children. It is a bewildering story of strange men hunting a mythological beast and leaves the reader in a bewildering void.

We can only marvel at the imagination of a child, so fertile and willing to accept the implausible: how easy it is to betray the trust of a child and tell them the most outrageous falsehoods. It is easy because the trusting mind of a child will work to find a method to rationalize an outrageous story and bring it into the concept of a child's reality.

In this engaging and tragic nonsense poem, there is an inadequacy of language, but the author relies on symbolism. The blank map is the beginning of a nightmare for any man of the sea and the Bellman's contradictory navigational and sailing orders are all the more confusing to a sailor. The use of foreign languages is bewildering, but the most bizarre episode has the Banker offering to protect the Beaver from the menacing Butcher, who specializes in butchering beaver, by insuring the beaver against fire and hail. The Court Officer is unwilling to fulfill their lawful obligations. The Banker attempts to bribe the predatory beast with money and suddenly disappears.

[rmh47]

Let’s hope that the Bellman doesn’t always ring twice.