shun The frumious Bandersnatch!'
He took his vorpal sword in hand; 10 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, is 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 20 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.
25 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.
1855 1871
[Humpty Dumpty's Explication of 'Jabberwocky']1
'You seem very clever at explaining words, Sir,' said Alice. 'Would you kindly tell me the meaning of the poem 'Jabberwocky'?'
1. From Through the Looking-Glass, chap. 1. 1. From Through the Looking-Glass, chap. 6.
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CARROLL: [EXPLICATION OF 'JABBERWOCKY'] / 1531
'Let's hear it,' said Humpty Dumpty. 'I can explain all the poems that ever were invented?and a good many that haven't been invented just yet.' This sounded very hopeful, so Alice repeated the first verse:
' 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.'
'That's enough to begin with,' Humpty Dumpty interrupted: 'there are plenty of hard words there. 'Brillig' means four o'clock in the afternoon?the time when you begin broiling things for dinner.'
'That'll do very well,' said Alice: 'and 'slithy'?'2 'Well, 'slithy' means 'lithe and slimy.' 'Lithe' is the same as 'active.' You see
it's like a portmanteau3?there are two meanings packed up into one word.' 'I see it now,' Alice remarked thoughtfully: 'and what are 'toves'?' 'Well, 'toves' are something like badgers?they're something like lizards?
and they're something like corkscrews.' 'They must be very curious creatures.' 'They are that,' said Humpty Dumpty: 'also they make their nests under
sundials?also they live on cheese.' 'And what's to 'gyre' and to 'gimble'?' 'To 'gyre' is to go round and round like a gyroscope. To 'gimble' is to make
holes like a gimlet.' 'And the 'wabe' is the grass plot round a sundial, I suppose?' said Alice, surprised at her own ingenuity. 'Of course it is. It's called 'wabe,' you know, because it goes a long way
before it, and a long way behind it ' 'And a long way beyond it on each side,' Alice added. 'Exactly so. Well then, 'mimsy' is 'flimsy and miserable' (there's another
portmanteau for you). And a 'borogove' is a thin shabby-looking bird with its feathers sticking out all round?something like a live mop.' 'And then 'mome raths'?' said Alice. 'If I'm not giving you too much trouble.' 'Well, a 'rath' is a sort of green pig: but 'mome' I'm not certain about. I
think it's short for 'from home'?meaning that they'd lost their way, you know.' 'And what does 'outgrabe' mean?' 'Well, 'outgribing' is something between bellowing and whistling, with a
kind of sneeze in the middle: however, you'll hear it done, maybe?down in
the wood yonder?and when you've once heardWho's been repeating all that hard stuff to you?' 'I read it in a book,' said Alice. it you'll be quite content. 1871
2. Concerning the pronunciation of these words, pronounced like the 'o' in 'borrow.' I have heard Carroll later said: 'The 'i' in 'slithy' is long, as in people try to give it the sound of the 'o' in 'worry.' 'writhe'; and 'toves' is pronounced so as to rhyme Such is Human Perversity.' with 'groves.' Again, the first 'o' in 'borogoves' is 3. Large suitcase.
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1 532 / LIGHT VERSE
The White Knight's Song1
I'll tell thee everything I can; There's little to relate. I saw an aged, aged man, A-sitting on a gate. 5 'Who are you, aged man?' I said. 'And how is it you live?' And his answer trickled through my head Like water through a sieve.
He said 'I look for butterflies 10 That sleep among the wheat;
I make them into mutton-pies, And sell them in the street. I sell them unto men,' he said,
'Who sail on stormy seas; is And that's the way I get my bread? A trifle, if you please.'
But I was thinking of a plan To dye one's whiskers green, And always use so large a fan 20 That they could not be seen. So, having no reply to give To what the old man said, I cried, 'Come, tell me how you live!' And thumped him on the head.
25 His accents mild took up the tale; He said, 'I go my ways, And when I find a mountain-rill, I set it in a blaze; And thence they make a stuff they call 30 Rowland's Macassar Oil2?Yet twopence-halfpenny is all They give me for my toil.'
But I was thinking of a way To feed oneself on batter, 35 And so go on from day to day Getting a little fatter.
