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[Lewis Carroll, Jabberwocky]
Lewis Carroll, famous nonsense poem

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Lewis Carroll
famous poetry quotations

Jabberwocky


  Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll (a.k.a. Charles Dodgson) is generally considered to be the greatest of all nonsense poems in English.

  It is such a famous nonsense poem that a number of its unlikely words have entered the Oxford English Dictionary. Alice (of Wonderland fame) here, in the paragraph following the poem, puts her finger on the secret of the poem's charm:
"... It seems to fill my head with ideas -- only I don't know exactly what they are."
A lthough the strange words have no precise meaning, they seem to chime with subtle overtones.



 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves


 Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

 All mimsy were the borogoves,


 And the mome raths outgrave.


 "Beware the Jabberwock, my son!


 The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

 Beware the Jujub 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 gree,


 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 outgrave.



 
 
Introductory quotations
.
William Blake
.
Rabbie Burns

 


 

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