In this poem, Carroll talks about the tale of a
mouse who is telling his story to Alice. It is about how he met a dog, and the
dog commanded him to stand trial, but there was no jury. The dog says he will be
the judge and condemn the mouse to death.
This poem is a beautiful example of graphology and the hidden
meaning behind certain styles. When the mouse talks about his tale, Alice hears
it as his tail, and Carroll, through his creative thinking, has written the
poem in a curved style which seems like it is written in the shape of a tail.
It adds to the overall meaning as the poem is about a mouse with a tail and
written in a tail’s shape. This makes the story fun, endearing, and enjoyable
to kids (as Alice in Wonderland is a children’s book).
This poem is an example of concrete poetry and uses typography at its center to convey the meaning. As the concrete poem allows different writing styles, Carroll has used a hand-written style in writing a poem, which has allowed him to write the words diagonally. Concrete poetry is also sometimes called visual poetry, even though it is a separate branch now.
Carrol’s writing in this curved style, breaking apart certain
words, writing two to three words in one line, and ending the text written like
the tip of a tail all capture the reader’s attention. The reader constantly
moves their eyes to capture the complete words and read the poem. As the
readers of this poem are primarily children, the unique style of this poem
makes it fascinating for the kids.
But this particular style also has another possible
interpretation. The story in this poem is dark and somber, disturbing, and even
violent. The curved style, and the unique phrasing of words, like breaking
apart the word and writing it as “prose-cute” instead of “prosecute,” diverts
the reader’s attention from the dark elements. The poem talks of the
helplessness of the weak (mouse) in front of the firm (dog); it talks of
injustice to the weak and how evil conquers goodness.
This meaning is most likely interpreted by the adult, the mature
audience who focuses on the text more because of its graphology. They would
have difficulty reading and focusing more on the text, thus arriving at
specific deep meanings, such as those written above. It is also essential that
Carroll wrote the poem with a big, prominent word, “Fury”, which seems to point
out that fury leads a man to make unjust decisions. Even though it’s a dog and
a mouse story, the dog is unjust by taking the mouse to law, although he has
done nothing wrong.
The tale, written in a tail-like shape, makes it look fascinating,
but unraveling the mystery behind the graphology gives newer meaning to the
overall text.
The poem is analyzed by Tayyaba Noor, one of the academic writers at the School of Literature.
