Tags
Alice in Wonderland, Galford, Jabberwocky, Lewis Caroll, Nonsense, poetry, Pretzels and Bullfights
And by the way...this is a jabberwocky, as illustrated by Sir John Tenniel. Creepy much?
Curiouser and curiouser…that’s the theme this week in the bar, with a few words from one of England’s wackiest writers: Lewis Caroll. The author of the legendary Alice in Wonderland – a staple engrained into the very heart of modern western culture – one of his most famous creations actually came within its sequel, in the form of a poem: “The Jabberwocky.”
Nonsense is the name of the game – and this work is considered one of the greatest bits of whimsy and fancy produced by the English language…comprised of many made-up yet perfect words. Many of them words that have since entered into the actual language. Ever wonder, after all, where the word “chortle” came from?
Get ready to get silly.
(And not to shamelessly self-advertise, but if you’ve got a free moment after your perusal, stop by the Waking Den, where I’ve got a special announcement or two of my own.)
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 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 Caroll
Thank you Chris, next to last week in our pub game and here are your questions:
1. Name 3 poets that people imitated for the Poetics prompt. (15 points)
2. Name the blog of the guest host for one of our prompts this week (5 points)
3. What poet wrote about dragons for OpenLinkNight? (15 points)
As always, please send you answers to dversepoets@gmail.com and after next week we will announce a winner!
dVerse 
LOVE! (I think I’ve made a point of this before but…) LOVE! but that’s just my wacky opinion 😉
One of my favourite poems of all time! (I was brought up both the Alice books, with the Tenniel illustrations.)
so cool chris…i’ve read about the jabberwock in comments around blogworld but never knew the source….would love to hear that spoken..think there’s a lot of potential in this poem for a creative performer
I used to be able to recite this at parties–not that that was a good thing, actually…but I also love it–and ‘the frumious Bandersnatch’ has been a surrogate title for many people in my life I had no better words for–mostly bosses(not you, however, brian– you are more a slithy tove.) Great choice, and that illustration definitely puts the seasonal flavor to it. Thanks, Chris.
I was so intrigued by Matt Coughlan’s Jabberwocky inspired “Fiddlestump Knows” poem that I wrote one of my own nonsense poems. I think it was the most difficult piece I ever wrote.
Great post – I’m thinking about Lewis Carroll, too, this week. This poem inspired my only nonsense poem I wrote for my husband who didn’t have much to do with poetry and was not a bit sentimental. I thought it was a love poem – but I don’t think he did.
Ah well. I stay in love with the Alice books.
I am the only one I know, I have never liked Jabberwocky and always hated when it came up in school. I just grit my teeth, and waited for those classes to pass and they did. Am I the only one? I do however like the artwork, it is scary. Please, nobody be upset this is only one opinion.
I find Carroll’s sound hard to beat except perhaps by Gerard Manley Hopkins who, of course, uses (sort of) traditional words. So interesting to think about sound though, and expanding one’s use of it. A weakness of mine. It’s pretty easy to get into ruts.
Thanks.
i write nonsense at times but no where near as good as LC…did not realize that on chortle as well…i like the attention to word sounds…
It’s interesting to me that I appreciate fun literature more as an adult than I did as a child. I was kind of a serious kid, lol. This is a fun one. I’m off to check out your announcements and to answer questions.
Thanks again for another great highlight, Chris 🙂
I still read the Alice books on a nearly annual basis…love the Jabberwock; thanks for postting this–O frabjous day!
I wikied Lewis Carroll and boy did I learn so much. Didn’t even realise that he wrote Alice In Wonderland, didn’t know it had a sequel and Through A Looking Glass is from a lyric of my favorite song! And didn’t know that nonsense is good. All from your Pretzels and Bullfights Chris. It is still a struggle for me to understand the jabberwocky but I know how to enjoy it!
love the Alice and the jabberwok ~ just to goes a little of what you fancy ~ fancies this :)) nice one chris ~ Lib
ljust unched some cookie and drank from ‘drink me’ am whistapeering …… g0one….
LOVE LOVE LOVE!!! I read the Alice books to my daughter as a very young child, and now she can recite Jabberwocky by heart! I wrote a nonsense poem as a sequel to Jabberwocky-difficult but fun!
http://lolamousedroppings.blogspot.com/2011/03/jabberwocky-ii-this-will-slay-you.html
I here you! Mine took me a couple months to do! I’ll check it out.
*hear
It’s amazing how many of those words are now part of our language. Here are some more words (from word verification on Blogspot blogs) to see if anyone comes up with a Jabberwocky from them:
Exestess
Rambull
Diastics
Urande
Swele
tizincom
unresi
reggli
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