“Jabberwocky”
by Lewis Carroll
Ever heard of
Alice in Wonderland?
by Lewis Carroll
Actually, Lewis Carroll was
really just the ‘pen name’
used by
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson
Lewis Carroll’s most famous writings are
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through
the Looking Glass, as well as the poems “The Hunting of
the Snark" and
“Jabberwocky”.
Jabberwocky
Jabberwocky is a poem of
Nonsense verse that
originally appeared in Lewis
Carroll’s famous novel
Through the Looking Glass.
It is widely known to be the
greatest (certainly most wellknown and studied) nonsense
poem ever written.
Jabberwocky
In the original text, the poem
was written sdrawkcab, and
Alice came up with the idea of
decoding it by holding it up to
the "looking-glass."
In the story, Humpty Dumpty
explains to her that the poem
"Jabberwocky" is made up of
portmanteaus or invented
words
How about…
“Jabberwocky”
There was a book lying near Alice on the table and while she
sat watching the White King (for she was still a little anxious
about him, and had the ink all ready to throw over him, in
case he fainted again), she turned over the leaves, to find
some part that she could read, "--for it's all in some language
I don't know", she said to herself.
It was like this.
She puzzled over this for some time, but at last a bright
thought struck her. "Why, it's a Looking-glass book, of
course! And if I hold it up to a glass, the words will all go the
right way again."
This was the poem that Alice read.
“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 a while 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!
Oh 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.
“Jabberwocky” Analysis
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves, A
And the mome raths outgrabe. B
A
B
'Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
C
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! D
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
C
The frumious Bandersnatch!'
D
He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood a while in thought.
E
-- F
G
F
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
H
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
I
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood, H
And burbled as it came!
I
One two! One two! And through and
through
J
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
K
L
K
'And hast thou slain the Jabberwock? M
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
N
Oh frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
O
He chortled in his joy.
N
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
REFRAIN
A
B
A
B
“Jabberwocky” Analysis
Poetry Form/Type: Ballad or Narrative
Ballad – Poems which narrate a story in short
stanzas
Follows iambic tetrameter
Stanzas: Seven Quatrains
Exploring the meaning
of “Jabberwocky”…
Thoughts?
What was Alice thinking?
'It seems very pretty,' she said when she had finished it,
'but it's rather hard to understand!'
(You see she didn't like to confess, even to herself, that
she couldn't make it out at all.)
'Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas—only I
don't exactly know what they are! However, somebody
killed something: that's clear, at any rate'
Humpty Dumpty had some
thoughts…
“You seem very clever at explaining
words, Sir”, said Alice. “Would you
kindly tell me the meaning of the poem
‘Jabberwocky’?”
“Let’s hear it”, said Humpty Dumpty. “I
can explain all the poems that have
ever been invented – and a good many
that haven’t been invented just yet.”
This sounded very hopeful, so Alice
repeated the first verse:
Portmanteau
A word formed out of
parts of other words.
Two meanings packed
into one word (as in the
poem Jabberwocky by Lewis
Carroll.)
Examples:
The word "portmanteau" was first
used in this context by Lewis
Carroll in the book Through the
Looking-Glass (1871), in which
Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice
the coinage of the unusual words in
Jabberwocky, where "slithy" means
"lithe and slimy" and "mimsy" is
"flimsy and miserable". Humpty
Dumpty explains the practice of
combining words in various ways
by telling Alice,
'You see it's like a portmanteau—
there are two meanings packed up
into one word.'
Brunch is formed from breakfast and lunch.
Spork is formed from spoon and fork.
Brangelina is formed from Brad and
Angelina.
Vocabulary or nonsense… or inventive?
This poem and it’s vocabulary have been studied and analysed ‘to death’. Lewis himself provided a
translation of many of the nonsense words into regular English, but himself even admitted to being
uncertain about the translation of others.
Here are some generally agreed upon translations…
Can you match up the nonsense word with the supposed meaning?
Word
Jubjub
Bandersnatch
vorpal
manxome
brillig
slithy
mimsy
beamish
chortled
tulgey
Meaning?
fearsome
Time to broil dinner
beautiful
Thick, dense, dark
swift moving creature with snapping
jaws
deadly, sharp
a desperate bird that lives in perpetual
passion
lithe and slimy
chuckle and snort
flimsy and miserable