The Hunting of the Snark

One of the most unusual poems ever written, "The Hunting of the Snark" is the uncontested masterpiece of nonsense verse. The verbal richness and flexibility of the English language are exploited to the utmost in this riotously funny, formally perfect, and delightfully absurd narrative poem about a strange assortment of characters out to hunt a fearsome creature known, among other things, for its habit of getting up so late that it breakfasts af five-o'clock tea and dines on the following day. No review can do justice to a work as original and extraordinary as this one, written more than a century ago to entertain Victorian children, but read now mostly by grownups. This is the very pinnacle of British humor, soaring far above even Monty Python's most inspired moments.