JABBERWOCKY
Lewis Carroll
(from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872)
`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, has 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.
Be Happy
July 3, 2009 at 2:43 PM
Excellent that ‘chortled’ and ‘galumphing’ entered the language from that poem. People are a bit iffy about Lewis Carroll nowadays, but I always loved his books. That is, not the Sylvie and Bruno ones that no one reads now, but Alice and the poems.
July 3, 2009 at 3:26 PM
I love Alice in Wonderland, kids don’t read books like that anymore and its a shame
July 5, 2009 at 7:35 PM
Oh that takes me back to college days. My boyfriend’s former music teacher had set Jabberwocky to music for the school choir to sing and we went along to the concert.
July 6, 2009 at 5:21 AM
I bet that was something to hear