thumb|right|Illustration by [[John Tenniel ]]
"Haddocks' Eyes" is the nickname
Haddocks' Eyes
The White Knight explains to Alice a confusing nomenclature for the song.
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.
The song
The White Knight sings the song to a tune he claims as his own invention, but which Alice recognises as "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.
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".
See also
- Nonsense verse