The Walrus and the Carpenter

Fiction | Poem | Middle Grade | Published in 1871

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

Lewis Carroll’s “The Walrus and the Carpenter” is made up of 18 sestets (six-line stanzas). The meter is iambic and alternates between lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter. An iamb is a metrical foot that consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (da-DUM). A tetrameter is a line with four of these metrical feet (typically eight syllables total), while a trimeter is a line with three feet (typically six syllables total).

In “The Walrus and the Carpenter,” the first, third, and fifth lines of each stanza are iambic tetrameters, while the second, fourth, and sixth lines are iambic trimeters. The poem also employs an ABCBDB rhyme scheme—“sea” (Line 1), “might” (Line 2), “make” (Line 3), “bright” (Line 4), “was” (Line 5), and “night” (Line 6). The meter Carroll uses in the poem is thus a kind of expansion of the ballad stanza, a popular type of quatrain (four-line stanza) with alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter and with an ABCB rhyme scheme, all of which contribute to easy recitation.

In English poetry, iambic feet can sometimes be substituted in order to create a more dynamic and interesting rhythm. The most common substitution involves replacing an iamb with a trochee, a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable (DA-dum), as in the first foot of Line 2 of “The Walrus and the Carpenter” (“Shining | with all | his might”).

Nonsense

The poem unfolds in one of Carroll’s trademark nonsense worlds. In it, the sun shines in the middle of the night, animals talk, and oysters wear shoes and walk along the beach. The poem, and the novel to which it belongs (Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There), are classic examples of Victorian “nonsense” literature, a literary genre that deliberately defies conventional logic, structure, and meaning to create absurd and surreal narratives. It tends to feature playful language and wordplay, fantastic characters, and impossible situations that defy readers’ expectations. Carroll played a formative role in the popularization of nonsense literature during the middle of the 19th century.

Virtually everything about “The Walrus and the Carpenter” is patently nonsensical: The sun and moon cannot talk or feel jealousy, as they do in the poem; a Walrus cannot befriend a Carpenter; and oysters cannot leave the sea and walk around on the shore. The world of the poem is saturated with nonsense, so much so that even the conversations between the characters generally devolve into meaninglessness. Take, for example, what the Walrus says to the oysters:

‘The time has come,’ the Walrus said,

‘To talk of many things:

Of shoes—and ships—and sealing wax—

Of cabbages—and kings—

And why the sea is boiling hot—

And whether pigs have wings’ (Lines 61-66).

The nonsense setting of the poem, however, also belies a deeper meaning, and the human behaviors of the non-human characters (for all their inherent absurdity) have very sensical lessons to teach about power, hypocrisy, and trust.

Anthropomorphism

Carroll uses anthropomorphism throughout the poem, a literary device that imbues non-human entities such as animals and features of the natural world with human characteristics, behaviors, and emotions. In the poem, the sun, the moon, the Walrus, and the oysters are all anthropomorphized.

At the very beginning of the poem, Carroll anthropomorphizes the sun and the moon, turning them into an almost human male-female pair. Thus, Carroll describes how the sun was “[s]hining with all his might” (Line 2), causing the moon to feel upset:

Because she thought the sun

Had got no business to be there

After the day was done—

‘It’s very rude of him,’ she said,

‘To come and spoil the fun!’ (Lines 8-12).

The Walrus, the titular character alongside the Carpenter, is likewise anthropomorphized as an animal with human traits. He talks to the Carpenter and the oysters, expresses emotions such as sadness, and even weeps. The childlike oysters who follow the Walrus and the Carpenter also talk and exhibit human traits.

Carroll’s use of anthropomorphism in “The Walrus and the Carpenter” serves a few purposes. On a basic level, the anthropomorphism of the celestial bodies and animals of the poem complements the general nonsense tone Carroll cultivates. The speaker even draws the reader’s attention to the nonsense of the poem’s anthropomorphism, reflecting on how “odd” (Line 5) it is for the sun to shine in the middle of the night or for oysters to wear shoes when they have no feet. However, the poem’s use of anthropomorphism also creates a sense of familiarity that draws readers into the narrative, making it easier to connect with the characters and their dilemmas. The human qualities of the manipulative Walrus and the childlike and trusting oysters thus contribute to the poem’s allegorical nature that invites readers to think about what “moral” the poem might have to teach about power and its abuse.