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From: mat@hou5d.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.jokes
Subject: Re: error messages--snark
Message-ID: <697@hou5d.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 13-Oct-83 15:36:18 EDT
Article-I.D.: hou5d.697
Posted: Thu Oct 13 15:36:18 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 14-Oct-83 20:17:23 EDT
References: <352@ihuxq.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Information Systems Laboratories, Holmdel, NJ
Lines: 42

The verse:

              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.

Is indeed by Lewis Carroll (Charles Rutlidge Dodgeson).  It is from his
poem ``The Hunting of the Snark''

	"'Tis the place for a Snark!" the Bellman cried
	As he landed his crew with care
	Supporting each one on the top of the tide
	By a finger entwined in his hair.

	"`Tis the place for a Snark!  I have said it twice.
	(That alone should encourage the crew.)
	'Tis the place for a Snark!  I have said it thice.
	(What I tell you three times is true.)

	. . .

	"You may seek it with thimbles and seek it with care.
	You may pursue it with forks and hope.
	You may threaten its life with a railway share.
	You may charm it with smiles and soap.

	"But, oh beamish nephew, beware of the day
	If your Snark be a Boojum, for then
	You will softly and suddenly vanish away
	And never be heard from again.

	"It is this, it is this, that oppresses my soul
	When I think of my uncle's last words.
	And my heart is like nothing so much as a bowl
	Brimming over with quivering curds.


Anyway, read the whole poem -- it is a delight.

						Mark Terribile
						Duke of deNet