"The Walrus and the Carpenter" is a narrative poem by Lewis Carroll that appears in his book Through the Looking-Glass, published in December 1871. The poem is recited in , by Tweedledum and Tweedledee to Alice.
The poem tells the story of a walrus and a carpenter who meet on a beach and decide to go for a walk. They come across a group of oysters, and the walrus persuades them to come with them. The oysters follow the walrus and the carpenter, and they are eventually all eaten.
The characters of the Walrus and the Carpenter have been interpreted many ways both in literary criticism and popular culture. British essayist J. B. Priestley argued that the figures were political. Walter Russell Mead supposed they represent aspects of Protestant and Transcendentalist societies during Carroll's life. They were also inspired by two sea stacks that stood outside the holiday home Carroll stayed at in Llandudno, Wales.
The 1967 Beatles song "I Am the Walrus", which is based on the poem, is also a common subject of nonsense inquiry. John Lennon later inferred Carroll's views on capitalism from the poem, joking that perhaps he should have instead sung "I Am the Carpenter".
In the 1999 film Dogma, Loki, the former Angel of Death (played by Matt Damon), presents the poem as an indictment of organized religion in order to test the faith of a Catholic nun.