Editing Haddocks' Eyes

{{Short description|Nickname of the name of a song}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2023}}
[[File:Knight2.jpg|thumb|right|Illustration by [[John Tenniel]] ]]
"'''Haddocks' Eyes'''" is the nickname<ref name="Swartz" /> of the name of a song sung by [[The White Knight (Through the Looking Glass)|The White Knight]] from [[Lewis Carroll]]'s  1871 novel ''[[Through the Looking-Glass]]'', [[s:Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There/Chapter VIII|chapter VIII]].

"Haddocks' Eyes" is an example used to elaborate on the symbolic status of the concept of "[[name]]": a name as identification marker may be assigned to anything, including another name, thus introducing different levels of symbolization. It has been discussed in several works on logic and philosophy.<ref>{{cite book |first=Robert D. |last=Sutherland |date=1970 |title=Language and Lewis Carroll |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=MFzzrIkSSYYC&pg=PA119 119] |publisher=[[De Gruyter|Mouton]] |isbn=978-90-279-0719-6}}</ref>

==Haddock's Eyes==

The White Knight explains to Alice a confusing nomenclature for the song.

{{poem quote|text=
"You are sad," the Knight said in an anxious tone: "let me sing you a song to comfort you."
"Is it very long?" Alice asked, for she had heard a good deal of poetry that day.
"It's long," said the Knight, "but very, {{em|very}} beautiful. Everybody that hears me sing it—either it brings the {{em|tears}} into their eyes, or else—"
"Or else what?" said Alice, for the Knight had made a sudden pause.
"Or else it doesn't, you know. The name of the song is called {{'}}''Haddocks' Eyes''{{'}}."
"Oh, that's the name of the song, is it?" Alice said, trying to feel interested.
"No, you don't understand," the Knight said, looking a little vexed.
"That's what the name is {{em|called}}. The name really {{em|is}} {{'}}''The Aged Aged Man''{{'}}."
"Then I ought to have said 'That's what the {{em|song}} is called'?" Alice corrected herself.
"No, you oughtn't: that's quite another thing! The {{em|song}} is called {{'}}''Ways And Means''{{'}}: but that's only what it's {{em|called}}, you know!"
"Well, what {{em|is}} the song, then?" said Alice, who was by this time completely bewildered.
"I was coming to that," the Knight said. "The song really {{em|is}} {{'}}''A-sitting On A Gate''{{'}}: and the tune's my own invention."
}}

To summarize:

*The song's '''name''' is '''called''' ''Haddocks' Eyes''
*The song's '''name''' is ''The Aged Aged Man''
*The song is '''called''' ''Ways and Means''
*The song '''is''' ''A-sitting on a Gate''

The complicated terminology distinguishing between 'the song, what the song is called, the name of the song, and what the name of the song is called' both uses and mentions the [[use–mention distinction]].<ref name="Swartz">{{cite web |first=Norman |last=Swartz |title=Use and Mention |url=https://www.sfu.ca/~swartz/use_and_mention.htm |publisher=[[Simon Fraser University]] |date=27 September 1997 |access-date=29 March 2012}}
</ref>

==The song==

The White Knight sings the song to a tune he claims as his own invention, but which Alice recognises as "[[My Heart and Lute|I give thee all, I can no more]]". By the time Alice heard it, she was already tired of poetry.

The song parodies the plot, but not the style or metre, of "[[Resolution and Independence]]" by [[William Wordsworth]].<ref>{{cite book |first=Lewis |last=Carroll |editor-first=Martin |editor-last=Gardner |title=[[The Annotated Alice]]: The Definitive Edition |publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company]] |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-393-04847-6}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Poem origins: Through the Looking Glass |url=http://www.alice-in-wonderland.net/resources/analysis/poem-origins/through-the-looking-glass/|access-date=12 May 2017}}</ref>

{{Poem quote|text=
I'll tell thee everything I can:
{{in5}}There's little to relate.
I saw an aged aged man,
{{in5}}A-sitting on a gate.
"Who are you, aged man?" I said,
{{in5}}"And how is it you live?"
And his answer trickled through my head,
{{in5}}Like water through a sieve.

He said "I look for butterflies
{{in5}}That sleep among the wheat:
I make them into mutton-pies,
{{in5}}And sell them in the street.
I sell them unto men," he said,
{{in5}}"Who sail on stormy seas;
And that's the way I get my bread –
{{in5}}A trifle, if you please."

But I was thinking of a plan
{{in5}}To dye one's whiskers green,
And always use so large a fan
{{in5}}That they could not be seen.
So, having no reply to give
{{in5}}To what the old man said,
I cried "Come, tell me how you live!"
{{in5}}And thumped him on the head.

His accents mild took up the tale:
{{in5}}He said "I go my ways,
And when I find a mountain-rill,
{{in5}}I set it in a blaze;
And thence they make a stuff they call
{{in5}}Rowlands' [[Macassar oil|Macassar-Oil]] –
Yet twopence-halfpenny is all
{{in5}}They give me for my toil."

But I was thinking of a way
{{in5}}To feed oneself on batter,
And so go on from day to day
{{in5}}Getting a little fatter.
I shook him well from side to side,
{{in5}}Until his face was blue:
"Come, tell me how you live," I cried,
{{in5}}"And what it is you do!"

He said "I hunt for [[haddock]]s' eyes
{{in5}}Among the heather bright,
And work them into waistcoat-buttons
{{in5}}In the silent night.
And these I do not sell for gold
{{in5}}Or coin of silvery shine,
But for a [[Halfpenny (British pre-decimal coin)|copper halfpenny]],
{{in5}}And that will purchase nine.

"I sometimes dig for buttered rolls,
{{in5}}Or set [[birdlime|limed twigs]] for crabs:
I sometimes search the grassy knolls
{{in5}}For wheels of [[Hansom cab|Hansom-cabs]].
And that's the way" (he gave a wink)
{{in5}}"By which I get my wealth--
And very gladly will I drink
{{in5}}Your Honour's noble health."

I heard him then, for I had just
{{in5}}Completed my design
To keep the [[Menai Suspension Bridge|Menai bridge]] from rust
{{in5}}By boiling it in wine.
I thanked him much for telling me
{{in5}}The way he got his wealth,
But chiefly for his wish that he
{{in5}}Might drink my noble health.

And now, if e'er by chance I put
{{in5}}My fingers into glue,
Or madly squeeze a right-hand foot
{{in5}}Into a left-hand shoe,

Or if I drop upon my toe
{{in5}}A very heavy weight,
I weep, for it reminds me so
Of that old man I used to know--
Whose look was mild, whose speech was slow
Whose hair was whiter than the snow,
Whose face was very like a crow,
With eyes, like cinders, all aglow,
Who seemed distracted with his woe,
Who rocked his body to and fro,
And muttered mumblingly and low,
As if his mouth were full of dough,
Who snorted like a buffalo--
That summer evening long ago,
{{in5}}A-sitting on a gate.
}}

==Upon the Lonely Moor==

Like "[[Jabberwocky]]," another poem published in ''Through the Looking Glass,'' "Haddocks’ Eyes" appears to have been revised over the course of many years. In 1856, Carroll published the following poem anonymously under the name ''Upon the Lonely Moor''. It bears an obvious resemblance to "Haddocks' Eyes."

{{Poem quote|text=
I met an aged, aged man
Upon the lonely moor:
I knew I was a gentleman,
And he was but a boor.
So I stopped and roughly questioned him,
"Come, tell me how you live!"
But his words impressed my ear no more
Than if it were a sieve.

He said, "I look for soap-bubbles,
That lie among the wheat,
And bake them into mutton-pies,
And sell them in the street.
I sell them unto men," he said,
"Who sail on stormy seas;
And that's the way I get my bread –
A trifle, if you please."

But I was thinking of a way
To multiply by ten,
And always, in the answer, get
The question back again.
I did not hear a word he said,
But kicked that old man calm,
And said, "Come, tell me how you live!"
And pinched him in the arm.

His accents mild took up the tale:
He said, "I go my ways,
And when I find a mountain-rill,
I set it in a blaze.
And thence they make a stuff they call
Rowland's Macassar Oil;
But fourpence-halfpenny is all
They give me for my toil."

But I was thinking of a plan
To paint one's gaiters green,
So much the color of the grass
That they could ne'er be seen.
I gave his ear a sudden box,
And questioned him again,
And tweaked his grey and reverend locks,
And put him into pain.

He said, "I hunt for haddock's eyes
Among the heather bright,
And work them into waistcoat-buttons
In the silent night.
And these I do not sell for gold,
Or coin or silver-mine,
But for a copper-halfpenny,
And that will purchase nine.

"I sometimes dig for buttered rolls,
Or set limed twigs for crabs;
I sometimes search the flowery knolls
For wheels of hansom cabs.
And that's the way" (he gave a wink)
"I get my living here,
And very gladly will I drink
Your Honour's health in beer."

I heard him then, for I had just
Completed my design
To keep the Menai bridge from rust
By boiling it in wine.
I duly thanked him, ere I went,
For all his stories queer,
But chiefly for his kind intent
To drink my health in beer.

And now if e'er by chance I put
My fingers into glue,
Or madly squeeze a right-hand foot
Into a left-hand shoe;
Or if a statement I aver
Of which I am not sure,
I think of that strange wanderer
Upon the lonely moor.
}}

==See also==
{{portal|Children's literature}}
*[[Nonsense verse]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Alice|state=expanded}}

[[Category:British poems]]
[[Category:British humorous poems]]
[[Category:1871 poems]]
[[Category:Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]]
[[Category:Nonsense poetry]]
[[Category:Parodies of literature]]