JABBERWOCKY

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
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 his vorpal 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 of flame,
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 hast 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.


--from "Through the Looking Glass And What Alice Found There"
by Lewis Carroll (Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) 1872

This particular poem appears on hundreds of pages and web sites all over the internet (of course my page is the best). There are even numerous translations of it in other languages -- I'm not sure how you do that without loosing the English language feeling of the nonsense words that were constructed for the poem.

"Jabberwocky" has been analyzed to death. Various pedantic "scholars" will take each word apart to probe its meaning. I think this really takes the fun out of the poem, and isn't at all what was intended for it when it was written.

There are even parodies of this poem, which I find to be quite amusing, as this poem itself is a parody of a medieval ballad.

Here's a link to the Lewis Carroll Society of North America.


If you'd like to hear me reading this poem, then Click Here