[52] Jabberwocky
Guest poem sent in by Rohit Grover <rgrover@>
'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 manxnome 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.
-- Lewis Carroll
|
Annotations by Martin Gardner:
The OED lists "slithy" as a variant of "sleathy," an obsolete word meaning
slovenly, but later Humpty Dumpty gives "slithy" a different
interpretation.
"Toves" should be pronounced to rhyme with "groves," Carroll tells us in
his preface to The Hunting ot the Snark.
The OED traces "gyre" back to 1420 as a word meaning to turn or whirl
around. This agrees with Humpty Dumpty's interpretation.
According to the OED, "gimble" is a variant spelling of "gimbal." Gimbals
are pivoted rings used for various purposes, such as suspending a ship's
compass so that it remains horizontal while the ship rolls. Humpty Dumpty
makes it clear, however, that the verb "gimble" is here used in a
different sense.
"Mimsy" is the first of eight nonsense words in Jabberwocky that are used
again in The Hunting of the Snark. In Carroll's time, according to the
OED, "mimsey" meant "pring, prudish, contemptible." Perhaps Carroll had
this in mind.
In his preface to the Snark, Carroll writes: "The first 'o' in
'borogoves' is pronounced like the 'o' in 'borrow.' I have heard people
give it the sound of 'o' in 'worry.' Such is Human Perversity." The word
is commonly mispronounced 'borogroves' by Carroll novitiates, and this
misspelling even appears in some American editions of the book.
"Mome" has a number of obsolete meanings such as mother, a
blockhead, a carping critic, a buffoon, none of which,
judging from Humpty Dumpty's interpretation, Carroll had in mind.
According to Humpty Dumpty, a 'rath' is a green pig but in Carroll's day
it was a well known old Irish word for an enclosure, usually a circular
earthen wall, serving as a fort and place of residence for the head of a
tribe.
'Frumious' is composed of 'fuming' and 'furious.'
'Manx' was the Celtic name for the Isle of Man. Whether Carroll had this
in mind when he coined the word 'manxnome' is unknown.
'Tum-tum' was a common colloquialism in Carroll's day referring to the
sound of a stringed instrument, especially when monotonously strummed.
In a letter, Carroll wrote that 'uffish' suggested to him "a state of mind
when the voice is gruffish, the manner roughish and the temper huffish.
'Gallumph' - this Carrollian word has entered the OED as a combination of
'gallop' and 'triumphant,' meaning "to march on exultantly with irregular
bounding movements."
The OED traces the word 'beamish' back to 1530 as a variant of 'beaming.'
'Chortled' - A Carrollian word that has made its way into the OED, where
it is defined as a blend of 'chuckle' and 'snort.'
From: Eleanor Durrant <e.durrant@>
The most remarkable thing about this poem, for me, is how easy it is to learn.
On a visit to the States a few years ago, I recited it to the son of a friend, who was about four and a
half years old and hadn't yet learned to read. He sat quietly for a minute and then asked to hear it again.
I went back to England and a few weeks later my friend told me that her son had recited the poem to her in
its entirety, unaltered except for the "he" of the protagonist changing to "I" - "I took my vorpal sword in
hand ..."
Eleanor Durrant
From: "Clem Byard" <cbyard@>
Hi,
All these definitions are given in the book by Humpty Dumpty and as his
approach to words is "individual" I think his definitions must be
regarded as highly suspect. In point of fact I think the egg is making
it up as he goes along and almost any definitions are to be preferred to
the one he gives.
Clem B.
From: Ray Turner <turnerr@>
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<p class"MsoNormal><font size"2 color"black face"Tahoma><span style"'font-size:
11.0pt;font-family:Tahoma;color:windowtext'>Years ago I taught a high school drama
class. I was a poor teacher, but most of the students demonstrated
progress in their exercises and scenes. All, actually, except one, who did
not participate at all. He was grossly overweight. He was a smart
boy and articulate, but shy in an unpleasant way, and was emotionally
disconnected from his classmates and his studies. His inactivity in my
class mirrored his work in other’s. He earned F’s in all
his assignments.
</span></font></p>
<p class"MsoNormal><font size"2 color"black face"Tahoma><span style"'font-size:
11.0pt;font-family:Tahoma;color:windowtext'> </span></font></p>
<p class"MsoNormal><font size"2 color"black face"Tahoma><span style"'font-size:
11.0pt;font-family:Tahoma;color:windowtext'>Students prepared scenes to perform
for their final examination. He did not work on this. On the
appointed day, small groups of students performed their scenes and received
their A’s and B’s and C’s. I asked our protagonist
if
he were ready to present a scene. I had always asked; he had always answered
with a grumpy ‘no.’ </span></font></p>
<p class"MsoNormal><font size"2 color"black face"Tahoma><span style"'font-size:
11.0pt;font-family:Tahoma;color:windowtext'> </span></font></p>
<p class"MsoNormal><font size"2 color"black face"Tahoma><span style"'font-size:
11.0pt;font-family:Tahoma;color:windowtext'>He hesitated. Then he
shuffled to the center of the room and stood alone, eyes down, wheezing a
little until he was ready. He looked up, opened his mouth and out charged,
‘Twas brillig and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe…’,
in a controlled, triumphant baritone that slapped the class hard and stunned us
all. The words, the sound and the moment merged to make a path for this
boy to come to us, take our hands and lead us firmly, eagerly, into his world. He
alternately caressed and bullied Carroll’s work and owned it, a sword (or
vorpal blade, I suppose) to hack through his tall walls. His song rose
and fell, riding the waves Carroll’s words and he slew his personal Jabberwock
at the most dangerous place, the place defined by his peers.</span></font></p>
<p class"MsoNormal><font size"2 color"black face"Tahoma><span style"'font-size:
11.0pt;font-family:Tahoma;color:windowtext'> </span></font></p>
<p class"MsoNormal><font size"2 color"black face"Tahoma><span style"'font-size:
11.0pt;font-family:Tahoma;color:windowtext'>After, he retreated. He
failed the course. But his heart was open for a moment, opened by Carroll
and his jabberish words.</span></font></p>
<p class"MsoNormal><font size"2 color"black face"Tahoma><span style"'font-size:
11.0pt;font-family:Tahoma;color:windowtext'> </span></font></p>
<pre><font size"2 color"black face"Tahoma><span style"'font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma;color:windowtext'>"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?</span></font></pre><pre><font
size"2 color"black face"Tahoma><span style"'font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Tahoma;
color:windowtext'> Come to my arms, my beamish boy!</span></font></pre><pre><font
size"2 color"black face"Tahoma><span style"'font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Tahoma;
color:windowtext'>O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"</span></font></pre><pre><font
size"2 color"black face"Tahoma><span style"'font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Tahoma;
color:windowtext'> He chortled in his joy.</span></font></pre>
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11.0pt;color:windowtext'> </span></font></p>
<p class"MsoPlainText><font size"2 face"Arial><span style"'font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Ray Turner</span></font></p>
<p class"MsoNormal><font size"3 color"black face"Arial><span style"'font-size:
12.0pt'> </span></font></p>
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From: StephJMarlow@
u need to write a page about wont the words mean 4 young children around 10
11