The Walrus and the Carpenter. . The Walrus and the Carpenter speaking to the Oysters in an illustration by John Tenniel"The Walrus and the Carpenter" is a poem by Lewis Carroll that appeared in his book Through the Looking-Glass, published in December 1871. The poem is recited in chapter four, by Tweedledum and Tweedledee to Alice.. [edit] Summary. Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.. The Walrus and the Carpenter are the main characters in the poem, which is recited by Tweedledum and Tweedledee to Alice. Walking upon a beach one (sunny) night, the Walrus and Carpenter come upon some oysters, four of whom they invite to join them-- however, to the disapproval of the eldest oyster, many more follow them. After walking along the beach, the two titular characters get hungry and eat all of the oysters. Afterward, the Walrus regrets his actions and cries.. . After hearing the poem recited, Alice remarks to Tweedledee and Tweedledum that she "..liked the Walrus best", because "...he was a little sorry for the poor oysters". After Tweedledee points out that the Walrus shelfishly hid and ate more oysters behind a handkerchief, Alice changes her mind and decides that "They were both very unpleasant characters". [1]. . Spoilers end here.. . [edit] Interpretations. "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.". . —Through the Looking-Glass. . There are many interpretations of the poem, the majority of which depict the Walrus and Carpenter to be corrupt leaders (whether it be in politics, religion, or business) leading their followers astray (in the form of the little oysters). The poem is often suggested to illustrate the nature of genocide.. . One such interpretation is that the Walrus and Carpenter symbolize the British government: the oysters symbolizing the lands the British government colonized and monopolized over time that didn't belong to them, such as China, India, and Africa.. . Martin Gardner noted in The Annotated Alice that when Carroll gave the manuscript for Looking Glass to illustrator John Tenniel, he gave him the choice of drawing a carpenter, a butterfly, or a baronet (since each word would fit the poem's meter). Tenniel chose the carpenter. Because of this, the carpenter's significance in the poem is probably not in his profession. Although the two characters of the poem were interpreted later as two political types, there is no indication of what Carroll may have intended, and Gardner cautions the reader against '...too much intended symbolism in the Alice books.' It should be noted that it was Carroll's character The Duchess who, in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, said that "Everything's got a moral, if only you can find it". Many portions of the Wonderland tales can be tied only to sheer whimsy, and while Carroll's life observations do make themselves obvious from time to time, it is possible that "The Walrus and the Carpenter" is not one of them.. . . [edit] In popular culture. In 1066 and All That, W. C. Sellar and R. J. Yeatman said that King Richard II of England exclaimed gloomily, "For God's sake, let me sit on the ground and tell bad stories about cabbages and things." This combines the poem's famous lines, "Of shoes—and ships—and sealing-wax—Of cabbages—and kings," and dialogue from William Shakespeare's play Richard II, "Let's talk of graves and worms and epitaphs... For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground/And tell sad stories of the death of kings." . In Disney's Alice in Wonderland, an adapted version of the poem is narrated in song and spoken word by Tweedledee and Tweedledum. In a virtuoso performance, character actor J. Pat O'Malley perf