Jabberwocky
Thursday, February 28th, 2008Who says writers always have to make sense? Lewis Carroll, author of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” actually wrote a poem that does not make sense at all. This poem actually appears in the sequel of “Alice in Wonderland”, called “Through the Looking Glass.”
Here is the poem:
Jabberwocky
- ‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
- Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
- All mimsy were the borogoves,
- And the mome raths outgrabe.
- Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
- “Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
- The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
- Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
- The frumious Bandersnatch!”
- The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
- 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.
- Long time the manxome foe he sought—
- And, as in uffish thought he stood,
- The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
- Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
- And burbled as it came!
- The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
- 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.
- The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
- “And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
- Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
- O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
- He chortled in his joy.
- Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
- ‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
- Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
- All mimsy were the borogoves,
- And the mome raths outgrabe.
- Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
If you can’t understand anything, don’t worry, I don’t either.@_@ And yes, it’s not supposed to make sense. Lewis Carroll tried to help us out, though, by making a glossary of the words there.
- Bandersnatch – A swift moving creature with snapping jaws. Capable of extending its neck.
- Borogove – A thin shabby-looking bird with its feathers sticking out all round, something like a live mop.
- Brillig – Four o’clock in the afternoon: the time when you begin broiling things for dinner.
- Burbled – Possibly a mixture of “bleat”, “murmur”, and “warble“.(Burble is also an actual word, circa 1303, meaning to form bubbles as in boiling water.)
- Chortled - Combination of chuckle and snort.
- Frabjous - Probably a blend of fair, fabulous, and joyous .
- Frumious – Combination of “fuming” and “furious.”
- Galumphing - Perhaps a blend of “gallop” and “triumphant.” (Used to describe a way of “trotting” down hill, while keeping one foot further back than the other. This enables the Galumpher to stop quickly)
- Gimble – To make holes like a gimlet.
- Gyre – To go round and round like a gyroscope. However, Carroll also wrote in Mischmasch that it meant to scratch like a dog.
- Jubjub – A desperate bird that lives in perpetual passion.
- Manxome – Fearsome; the word is of unknown origin.
- Mimsy – Combination of “miserable” and “flimsy.”
- Mome – Possibly short for “from home,” meaning that the raths had lost their way.
- Outgrabe (past tense; present tense outgribe) – Something between bellowing and whistling, with a kind of sneeze in the middle.
- Rath – A sort of green pig.
- Slithy – Combination of “slimy” and “lithe.”
- Toves – A combination of a badger, a lizard, and a corkscrew. They are very curious looking creatures which make their nests under sundials. They live on cheese. Pronounced so as to rhyme with groves. Note that “gyre and gimble,” i.e. rotate and bore, is in reference to the toves being part corkscrew, at least by Humpty Dumpty’s definitions.
- Tulgey - Thick, dense, dark.
- Uffish – A state of mind when the voice is gruffish, the manner roughish, and the temper huffish.
- Wabe – The grass plot around a sundial. It is called a “wabe” because it goes a long way before it, and a long way behind it, and a long way beyond it on each side.
Helpful man… Or not.
