The Mad Gardener’s Song | Lewis Carroll | Summary | Generations | Grade XII
Short summary:
“The Mad
Gardener’s Song” contains several disjointed stanzas which have a mad logic as
a common factor. The first line of each stanza begins with “He thought he saw
…”. The third line is the same in each stanza: “He looked again, and found it
was”. This revised vision leads the persona to a conclusion in the last two
lines of each stanza. However, the conclusion does not match the premise from
which it is drawn.
Summary
“The Mad Gardener’s Song” by Lewis Carroll is a
nonsense poem about seeing something and then looking again and seeing
something completely different. The poem is meant to provide humor simply for
the purpose of being entertaining.
As the speaker thinks that he saw an elephant practicing a flute but suddenly the stanza bumps into with something very uncommon that the elephant practicing the flute comes to be the letter form his wife which is the bitterness of life, for him. The speaker first saw a buffalo on the chimney but that was his sister’s husband’s niece whom he doesn’t like because she was burden for them. Similarly, the speaker saw a rattlesnake questioning him in Greek but latter on that was the middle of next week and he has regret for that cannot speak. Again, he first saw a Banker’s clerk descending from the bus but next that was a hippopotamus and worries for the dinner. Similarly, he first saw a Kangaroo working at a coffee-mill but next that was a Vegetable- Pill which can make his health ill. He imagines a horse driven vehicle standing besides his bed but that turns into a bear without head. He shows pity for his hunger. The speaker first saw an Albatross fluttering round the lamp but that was a Penny-Postage-Stamp in real and he advised it to go home due to the cold night. The garden door opening with a key turns out to be double role of three and he thinks that all its misery is clear to him. Finally the argument that proved he was the Pope turns out to be a bar of soap and he thinks that it takes away all the hope.
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