Is Lewis Carroll's "The Walrus and the Carpenter" a nightmare? We consulted an old book of dream symbolism,
The Gates of the Future Thrown Open by Carlotta de Barsy (1899) to see what the imagery of its most famous passage means.
"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."
Four of the seven symbols are auspicious, making that passage of "The Walrus and the Carpenter" just barely less nightmarish.
