'twas brillig and the slithy toves

[MrBishop]

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.


So...have you ever read it, and what do you think?

 

[unclehobart]

 

[unclehobart]

TABLESPOONS

Teas Willis, and the sticky tours
Did gym and Gibbs in the wake.
All mimes were the borrowers,
And the moderate Belgrade.

"Beware the tablespoon my son,
The teeth that bite, the Claus that catch.
Beware the Subjects bird, and shred
The serious Bandwidth!"

He took his Verbal sword in hand:
Long time the monitors fog he sought,
So rested he by the Tumbled tree,
And stood a while in thought.

And as in selfish thought he stood,
The tablespoon, with eyes of Flame,
Came stifling through the trigger wood,
And troubled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and though,
The Verbal blade went thicker shade.
He left it dead, and with its head,
He went gambling back.

"And host Thai slash the tablespoon?
Come to my arms my bearish boy.
Oh various day! Cartoon! Cathay!"
He charted in his joy.

Teas Willis, and the sticky tours
Did gym and Gibbs in the wake.
All mimes were the borrowers,
And the moderate Belgrade.

 

[unclehobart]

http://waxdog.com/jabberwocky/def.html

 

[MrBishop]

Cute Unc.

Wonder if it was done by hand or with a program.

 

[BlurOfSerenity]

DUDE NO WAY!!!

being the superamazingly-obsesed Alice-freak i am, i've got that poem memorised forwards, backwards, and upside-down.

in fact, there was a National Art Honor Society coffeehouse at my school.... and i DRESSED as alice -- my mom made the costume -- and recited Jabberwocky.

i remember when i memorised it... i copied it from the book to a journal, and sat in math class repeating each line out loud until i had it all memorised. it annoyed people

oh, and i had another coffeehouse at my old (special/problem-kid) school, and i recited it there, but with great drama... and i got like 5 plus-points on my point-sheet!!

[size=+5]I LOVE LEWIS CARROLL[/size]

 

[BlurOfSerenity]

oh, might i add, that i think one of the most interesting things about the poem, is that many of the made-up words have actually made it into dictionaries and are in use.
such as, "chortled", and "whiffling".
i've also heard or seen "burbled", "gallumphing" and most of all, "frabjous".
W00T!!

 

[MrBishop]

There was a discussion on the radio the other day about the poem and how some of the words that he used are related to words in other languages...that he didn't make them up off the top of his head.

I'll agree with you tho' Lewis' Through the looking glass is a great book, and challenging to analize(sp?)

 

[BlurOfSerenity]

do you have, or have you read, The Annotated Alice?
it's one of my (28 !) copies of the books, and very very informative!

 

[HubbaHubba]

I actually did a report on that poem. God that was tough but i pulled off 79% and lost 10% because of my spelling .. he didnt like the excuse that i was trying to talk more like Carroll.

 

[BlurOfSerenity]

my wayyy-overdue editorial i must write for englisch will probably be about how annoying it is when little people are only familiar with the movie and they think that lewis (we're on a first-name-basis, you see), was on all these drugs and such, and im like, ... GIR .

hmmm... maybe, since this post has started me on something, i'll go write it now.

 

[BlurOfSerenity]

i wrote the rockinest paper on it.

www.batwing.org/lewiscarroll.html . i'll maybe make a new thread tomorrow. people need to know how i feels.