[SIZE=+2] `Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+2]
[/SIZE][SIZE=+2]
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+2]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.
[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+2]And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+2]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.
[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+2]"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy.
[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+2]
`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
[/SIZE]
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+2]
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+2]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.
[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+2]And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+2]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.
[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+2]"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy.
[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+2]
`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+2]
[/SIZE][h=3]Possible interpretations of words[/h]
[/SIZE]
[/SIZE][h=3]Possible interpretations of words[/h]
- Bandersnatch: A swift moving creature with snapping jaws, capable of extending its neck.[SUP][18][/SUP]A 'bander' was also an archaic word for a 'leader', suggesting that a'bandersnatch' might be an animal that hunts the leader of a group.[SUP][16][/SUP]
- Beamish: Radiantly beaming, happy, cheerful. Although Carroll may have believed he had coined this word, it is cited in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1530.[SUP][19][/SUP]
- Borogove:Following the poem Humpty Dumpty says, " 'borogove' is a thinshabby-looking bird with its feathers sticking out all round, somethinglike a live mop." In explanatory book notes Carroll describes itfurther as "an extinct kind of Parrot. They had no wings, beaks turnedup, made their nests under sun-dials and lived on veal."[SUP][16][/SUP] In Hunting of the Snark, Carroll says that the initial syllable of borogove is pronounced as in borrow rather than as in worry.[SUP][15][/SUP][SUP][18][/SUP]
- Brillig:Following the poem, the character of Humpty Dumpty comments: "'Brillig' means four o'clock in the afternoon, the time when you beginbroiling things for dinner."[SUP][15][/SUP] According to Mischmasch, it is derived from the verb to bryl or broil.
- Burbled:In a letter of December 1877, Carroll notes that "burble" could be amixture of the three verbs 'bleat', 'murmur', and 'warble', although hedidn't remember creating it.[SUP][19][/SUP][SUP][20][/SUP]
- Frabjous: Possibly a blend of fair, fabulous, and joyous. Definition from Oxford English Dictionary, credited to Lewis Carroll.
- Frumious: Combination of "fuming" and "furious". In Hunting of the SnarkCarroll comments, "[T]ake the two words 'fuming' and 'furious'. Make upyour mind that you will say both words, but leave it unsettled whichyou will say first. Now open your mouth and speak. If your thoughtsincline ever so little towards 'fuming', you will say 'fuming-furious';if they turn, by even a hair's breadth, towards 'furious', you will say'furious-fuming'; but if you have the rarest of gifts, a perfectlybalanced mind, you will say 'frumious'."[SUP][18][/SUP]
- Galumphing: Perhaps used in the poem a blend of 'gallop' and 'triumphant'.[SUP][19][/SUP] Used later by Kipling, and cited by Webster as "To move with a clumsy and heavy tread"[SUP][21][/SUP][SUP][22][/SUP]
- Gyre: "To 'gyre' is to go round and round like a gyroscope."[SUP][15][/SUP] Gyre is entered in the OEDfrom 1420, meaning a circular or spiral motion or form; especially agiant circular oceanic surface current. However, Carroll also wrote in Mischmasch that it meant to scratch like a dog.[SUP][16][/SUP] The g is pronounced like the /g/ in gold, not like gem.[SUP][23][/SUP]
- Jabberwocky: When a class in the Girls' Latin School in Boston asked Carroll's permission to name their school magazine The Jabberwock, he replied: "The Anglo-Saxonword 'wocer' or 'wocor' signifies 'offspring' or 'fruit'. Taking'jabber' in its ordinary acceptation of 'excited and volublediscussion,'"[SUP][16][/SUP]
- Jubjub bird: 'A desperate bird that lives in perpetual passion', according to the Butcher in Carroll's later poem The Hunting of the Snark.[SUP][18][/SUP] 'Jub' is an ancient word for a jerkinor a dialect word for the trot of a horse (OED). It might makereference to the call of the bird resembling the sound "jub, jub".[SUP][16][/SUP]
- Manxome: Possibly 'fearsome'; A portmanteau of "manly" and "buxom",the latter relating to men for most of its history; or relating to Manx people.
- Mome rath: Humpty Dumpty says following the poem: "A 'rath' is asort of green pig: but 'mome" I'm not certain about. I think it's shortfor 'from home', meaning that they'd lost their way".[SUP][15][/SUP] Carroll's notes for the original in Mischmaschstate: "a species of Badger [which] had smooth white hair, long hindlegs, and short horns like a stag [and] lived chiefly on cheese"[SUP][16][/SUP]Explanatory book notes comment that 'Mome' means to seem 'grave' and a'Rath': is "a species of land turtle. Head erect, mouth like a shark,the front forelegs curved out so that the animal walked on its knees,smooth green body, lived on swallows and oysters."[SUP][16][/SUP] In the 1951 animated film adaptation of the book's prequel,the mome raths are depicted as small, multi-colored creatures withtufty hair, round eyes, and long legs resembling pipe stems.
- Outgrabe: Humpty says " 'outgribing' is something between bellowing and whistling, with a kind of sneeze in the middle".[SUP][15][/SUP]Carroll's book appendices suggest it is the past tense of the verb to'outgribe', connected with the old verb to 'grike' or 'shrike', whichderived 'shriek' and 'creak' and hence 'squeak'.[SUP][16][/SUP]
- Slithy:Humpty Dumpty says: " 'Slithy' means 'lithe and slimy'. 'Lithe' is thesame as 'active'. You see it's like a portmanteau, there are twomeanings packed up into one word."[SUP][15][/SUP] The original in MischMasch notes that 'slithy' means "smooth and active"[SUP][16][/SUP] The i is long, as in writhe.
- Snicker-snack: possibly related to the large knife, the snickersnee.[SUP][19][/SUP]
- Tove: Humpty Dumpty says " 'Toves' are something like badgers,they're something like lizards, and they're something like corkscrews.[...] Also they make their nests under sun-dials, also they live oncheese."[SUP][15][/SUP] Pronounced so as to rhyme with groves.[SUP][18][/SUP] They "gyre and gimble," i.e. rotate and bore.
- Tulgey:Carroll himself said he could give no source for Tulgey. Could be takento mean thick, dense, dark. It has been suggested that it comes fromthe Anglo-Cornish word "Tulgu", 'darkness', which in turn comes from the Cornish language "Tewolgow" 'darkness, gloominess'.[SUP][24][/SUP]
- Uffish: Carroll noted "It seemed to suggest a state of mind whenthe voice is gruffish, the manner roughish, and the temper huffish".[SUP][19][/SUP][SUP][20][/SUP]
- Vorpal:Carroll said he could not explain this word, though it has been notedthat it can be formed by taking letters alternately from "verbal" and"gospel".[SUP][25][/SUP]
- Wabe: The characters in the poem suggest it means "The grass plotaround a sundial", called a 'wa-be' because it "goes a long way beforeit, and a long way behind it".[SUP][15][/SUP] In the original MischMasch text, Carroll states a 'wabe' is "the side of a hill (from its being soaked by rain)".[SUP][16][/SUP]
[/SIZE]