toves

Toves are fictional creatures from Lewis Carroll’s nonsense poem The Hunting of the Snark, first published in 1876. They are part of Carroll’s whimsical taxonomy of invented beings that also includes creatures such as snarks and borogoves. The poem does not provide a precise or consistent physical description of the toves; instead, they appear as part of the surreal catalog of beings encountered by the crew during their voyage to hunt the Snark. The toves contribute to the work’s humorous and fantastical atmosphere, exemplifying Carroll’s playful use of language and invention.

In the context of The Hunting of the Snark, the toves function primarily as elements within the voyage’s episodic and nonsensical structure. The text emphasizes mood, rhythm, and wordplay rather than scientific or logical classification, which is characteristic of Carroll’s broader literary approach. As such, toves are often discussed as a symbol of literary nonsense and the imaginative exploration of language rather than as a concrete creature with a defined biology or behavior.

Cultural impact and usage: since the work is in the public domain, the term “tove” has circulated in literary discussions of Carroll’s oeuvre and is frequently cited in analyses of nonsense verse and neologism. The concept remains part of the broader 19th-century tradition of playful invented zoology in English literature.