Jabberwocky This whole poem is nonsense Wait what No its true Jabberwocky is in all probability the most famous nonsense poem ever written in English The vast majority of the words in this poem are clever inventions of its author This makes sense if you consider the fact that it was ID: 789403
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Slide1
Jabberwocky By: Lewis Carroll
Slide2Jabberwocky
This
whole poem is nonsense.
Wait, what?
No, it's true. "Jabberwocky" is, in all probability, the most famous nonsense poem ever written in English. The vast majority of the words in this poem are clever inventions of its author. This makes sense if you consider the fact that it was originally published in its entirety in the 1871 book
Through the Looking-Glass, and what Alice Found There
by Lewis Carroll. Does that sound familiar? It should. With its companion piece,
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
, "Jabberwocky" is the basis for the wildly popular Disney movie
Alice in Wonderland
.
Slide3Lewis Carroll or Charles Lutwidge Dodgson?
Carroll created the pen name Lewis Carroll by translating his first and middle names into Latin, reversing their order, and loosely translating them back into English. He published under this pseudonym to protect his privacy.
Slide4Lewis Carroll
Carroll, whose real name was Charles
Lutwidge
Dodgson, was born in the English village of
Daresbury
. He was the eldest son (out of 11 children) of
a minister
.
To entertain his siblings, Carroll wrote stories and poems and drew pictures, which he collected in magazines that he gave out to the family.
Carroll was a student at Rugby School, where he excelled academically but was the victim of bullying. He went on to study mathematics and classical studies at Christ Church, Oxford.
Slide5So nonsense has a point?
Jabberwocky," despite its goofy language, is about facing your demons. It's a strange world we live in, filled with all sorts of unknowns, and every now and again you're bound to round a corner and come face to face with something horrible (metaphorically, we hope). But we all have "
vorpal
blades"
(L. 18
) lying around somewhere, just waiting to vanquish our awful foe. And when we do, it's
awesome
. We're
awesome
. And we go along our merry way.
Slide6So much nonsense!
Identify the unknown words in the text. What part of speech do you think they are – noun, verb, adjective or adverb?
brillig
-_________
mimsy
-_________
slithy
-_________
borogoves
- _________
toves
- ________
outgrabe
- _________
gyre - _________
mome
-_________
gimble
-_________
raths
- ________
wabe
- ________
How did you decide what part of speech they were?
Slide7Decide on the meaning of the words.
brillig
-_______________________________
slithy
- _______________________________
toves
- _______________________________
gyre - _______________________________
gimble
-_______________________________
wabe
- _______________________________
mimsy
-_______________________________
mome
- _______________________________
raths
- _______________________________
borogoves
- ___________________________
outgrabe
– ___________________________
How did you decide the meaning of the words?
Slide8There is one documented explanation of the first stanza by Carroll himself. He gives us a summary through the character of Humpty-Dumpty (yup, the one who fell off the wall) in
Through the Looking-Glass
. For what it's worth (after all, nothing is entirely reliable in Carroll's Wonderland), I present to you a summary of the first stanza vocabulary according to Humpty:
Slide9Brillig
: four o' clock in the afternoon, because that's when you start
broiling
things for dinner
Slithy
:
lithe
and
slimy
Toves
: "something like badgers, something like lizards, and something like corkscrews" (125)
Gyre
and
gimble
: to
gyre
is to go around like a gyroscope, and
gimble
is to make holes in something
Wabe
: the grass plot surrounding a sun-dial (so named because it goes a
ways
in each direction)
Mimsy
: combination (called a
portmanteau
) of
flimsy
and
miserable
Slide10Borogoves
: a "thin, shabby-looking bird" that resembles a mop
Mome
raths
: "well, a
rath
is a sort of green pig, but
mome
I'm not sure about, I think it's short for 'from home' – meaning they'd lost their way, you know" (126)
Outgrabe
: a combination of whistling and bellowing with a sneeze in the middle (apparently the present tense of this verb is
outgribe
, meaning
outgrabe
is past tense, a little like
give
and
gave
).
Slide11Now that we have read this poem that makes no sense, it is time for some nonsense.
Slide12Typical Student Questions
Where am I going to see a stupid Jabberwocky in the “real world?!”
Why, in the movie! Duh!!!
Reading comprehension even if it is nonsense can be a money-maker!