Jabberwocky

Jabberwocky (1872) by Lewis Carroll
(From “Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There”)

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
  Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were theborogoves,
  And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
  The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
  The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took hisvorpal sword in hand:
  Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
  And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
  The Jabberwock, with eyes offlame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
  And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
  The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head  He went galumphing back.

"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
  Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
  He chortled in his joy.

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves  Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
  And the mome raths outgrabe.


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In books like “Alice in Wonderland”, and “Through the Looking Glass”,Lewis Carroll used the conventions of language to create absurd, comical situations.

The poem,”Jabberwocky” uses many nonsense words (shown in italics). These words do not exist in English, but theauthor makes us think that they mean something. For example, slithy toves is preceeded by the, so readers assume (unconsciously) that toves is a plural noun - maybe creatures of some kind – and thatslithy is an adjective that describes them. Other words end in -ing or -ed. These endings, and the syntactical contexts of the words themselves, induces readers to think they are verbs. Especiallyinteresting is the phrase “the mome raths outgrabe” in which readers interpret outgrabe as some kind of irregular past-tense verb.

This poem illustrates the way good readers use their general...