jabberwocky

we did a project in school about the Jabberwocky, which, was very fascinating. We had to decipher what it meant, and had a splendid time deciding whether it had to do with drugs or a life cycle.<br>We concluded that it had to be an adult recalling some great triumph over a fear of his childhood. However, once one defeats one fear another comes to take its place. It is why the first stanza of the Jabberwocky is the same as the last, for once you do defeat one, another, just like the fear before, comes and one must face it again, for another fear to come and take its place.<br>What does everyone think the reason is for the author to have written the Jabberwocky?

Contradictory to how you have picked apart Jabberwocky, I think that the poem itself is a piece of nonsense.
It is remembered only because of its incomprehensible language, and the fact that children adore it, even if they never fully understand it.
But...
If one were to try and decipher it, it would be close to how you have done it. In the poem, it mentions a couple of "frumious" creatures, such as the Bandersnatch and Jabberwocky, that the poem warns to beware of. And of course, someone slays the Jabberwocky.
A poem of chivalry.
But mostly silly.

And it added the word 'chortled' to the lexicon, let's not forget that.

I remember making a stink about this poem when I was in highschool.

I thought that really the creature had done nothing wrong and did not deserve the violence done to it merely because it was different.

Interesting. No wonder you run a literature website.

Indeed, I, too, have always found this poem rather nonsensical, but I love it - a true work of art's intention at uniquity! :nod:
A friend of mine and I, having to memorize it for school long ago, would have contests of who could recite it the quickest. I won, timing at 31 seconds. :D

Quote:

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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 wiffling 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.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by mono

Indeed, I, too, have always found this poem rather nonsensical, but I love it - a true work of art's intention at uniquity! :nod:
A friend of mine and I, having to memorize it for school long ago, would have contests of who could recite it the quickest. I won, timing at 31 seconds. :D

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I accept your challenge..... *turns away from computer and starts timer*................ damn, 35!

Carroll was really into rhyme ... he loved to parody songs or poems he heard [including "How doth the Busy Bee", "Maud" and a popular music hall song called "Star of the Evening"].

But "Jabberwocky" has it's beginnings an earilier love, Anglo-Saxon poetry. It started out as a schoolboy pastiche in the style of "Beowolf" and was incorporated into "Alice in Wonderland" later.

He mentions AS in three places in "Alice in Wonderland" and "Alice through the Lookingglass" that I have found.

PS 32 seconds! .... hee hee! "and burbled as it came!"

Well, Humpty Dumpty later explains a small piece of what the words mean in "Through the Looking Glass" and I find it to be just as it was said before...nonsense! I think the magic of the poem is that t doesn't make sense, and givesa writer analmost right to make up words freely! After all, it is like what Humpty Dumpty says, "When I say a word, it means exactly what I want it to mean...no more, no less...who is to be the master, that is the real question!"