Mobile Photography/Art – Saturday Poetry – ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat’ by Lewis Carroll
I am introducing a new section, simply titled, Saturday Poetry. Each Saturday I will publish a poem and I will also try to link a mobile photography image, that has been uploaded to our Instagram hashtag #theappwhisperer during the week.
Today, I am publishing ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat’ by Lewis Carroll. It is a poem recited by the Mad Hatter in chapter seven of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865). It is a parody of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”.
The poem seems to question the activities of a bat which appears to be a mysterious and even a mystical creature whose daily on goings are a mystery to the speaker. Though the bat does not appear to have any structural affinity with a tea tray it has been compared to one.
The poem seems to question the activities of a bat which appears to be a mysterious and even a mystical creature whose daily on goings are a mystery to the speaker. Though the bat does not appear to have any structural affinity with a tea tray it has been compared to one.
The theme of the poem is simply a musing on the activity and ontology of a bat but we could also suggest that this appears to be a nonsense poem and the theme is only the manifestation of this nonsense.
Apparently the tone of the poem is that of surprise or amusement at the antics of the bat but being informed of the real purport of the book of Caroll we could not simply stop at the conclusion that the poem is a piece of nonsense. The style is simple enough to be of enjoyment to little children who were the primary target audience of the book. But as is suggested earlier the simplicity could be very deceptive and may be pregnant with many hidden agendas. The fact that it is a parody of a popular rhyme – Twinkle, Twinkle little Star makes it both blameless and guilty of subversion of the popular standards of the time. In fact the book is a parody of the manners and times of Victorian England. It is curious that the word ‘Twinkle’ is not an onomatopoeic word as it appears to be since the word does not represent the sound of the object. The sound of the star is actually not heard by human ears (it is registered by highly sophisticated radio machinery if the star happens to be a pulsar!). The word is actually a visual onomatopoeia (if there could be an expression like that!) where the blinking of the stars has been popularly rendered as ‘twinkle’.
Caroll has been criticising the absurdity of the linguistic over-decorativeness in both literature and everyday use and just by using a word in as absurd a use as it was always used he might be satirizing the entire traditionness of the linguistic practices of English as a language. This feature of the poem is more remarkable when we bring into attention the fact that the poem is basically a parody. A parody is a work which generally makes fun of some other work of authority and reputation by disgruntling and twisting its features by the means of exaggeration or minimalization. Here Caroll takes on a popular icon of a nursery rhyme to twist its absurdity out into the open. The parody is reinforced by the absurdity of the structural comparison of the bat and the tray. It appears that it was done primarily to make the rhyme but the absurdity and ‘no-rhyme-no-reason’ actually heightens the element of parody. Bats are actually shy creatures and mysterious. The speaker is clueless about the bat and not so much as the child in the original rhyme. After all the rhyme is recited by the Mad Hatter who is, well, mad! Thus the character is in rhyme with what he says and therefore the rhyme is after all not so nonsensical.
(This wonderful analysis was provided by Beamingnotes.com – really fabulous website).
I have matched @lettsflair – image ‘Moonlit Skies‘ with this poem. You can follow her on Instagram here
To view the others we have published in this section, go here.
Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat
“Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat,
How I wonder what you’re at:
Up above the world you fly
Like a tea tray in the sky,
Up above the world you fly
Like at tea tray in the sky.
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat,
How I wonder what you’re at:
Up above the world you fly
Like a tea tray in the sky”.
‘Moonlit Skies’
Joanne Carter
Joanne Carter is a British photography journalist, editor, curator, and the founder of *TheAppWhisperer.com*, one of the world’s leading platforms dedicated to mobile photography and art. Since its launch in 2009, TheAppWhisperer has become an international hub for artists of all levels to discover, learn, exhibit, and engage with contemporary photographic practice.Built on principles of inclusivity, accessibility, and artistic excellence, Joanne has spent almost two decades championing mobile photography as a serious artistic medium. Through interviews, critical essays, exhibitions, competitions, and education, she has helped shape and document the evolution of mobile art on a global scale.Her work has taken her internationally, lecturing on photography and mobile art at institutions and events including the Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea, alongside appearances in the UK and Europe. She has served as a juror for international photography and mobile art awards across Portugal, Canada, the United States, South Korea, Italy, and the UK.Joanne is also the founder of *TheAppWhispererPrintSales.com*, one of the first online galleries dedicated exclusively to collectible mobile art, connecting artists with collectors across Europe, the United States, and Asia.Before founding TheAppWhisperer, Joanne worked extensively in print journalism and photographic publishing, including roles at a paparazzi photo agency and as deputy editor of a leading photography magazine. Her freelance journalism, criticism, and commentary have been published widely in both the UK and the US, with bylines in *The Times*, *The Sunday Times*, *The Guardian*, *Popular Photography*, *NikonPro*, *DPReview*, *Which?*, *Vogue Italia*, *LensCulture*, the *BBC*, and more recently, the *Financial Times*, where her published letters on photography continue to contribute to wider conversations around the medium.Alongside her editorial and curatorial work, Joanne’s own photographic practice has been exhibited internationally across the UK, Europe, South Korea, and the United States. Her work increasingly explores themes of grief, loss, death, memory, and the body.Her current research interests centre on grief, death, and poverty, with forthcoming postgraduate study leading towards doctoral research in these areas.Joanne is currently developing new long-form writing and photographic projects and is available for commissions, editorial projects, speaking engagements, and collaborations.Contact: joannetheappwhisperer@gmail.com)
