The poem "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll is a nonsense poem that tells the story of a boy who goes on a quest to slay the Jabberwock. It is written entirely in nonsense words that Carroll invented, making it sound like a made up language. The poem describes the boy encountering and battling the fearsome Jabberwock, which has eyes of flame. Through quick sword strikes, the boy is able to defeat the Jabberwock and returns home victorious to the praise of his father. The repetitive first and last stanzas frame the story and suggest things have returned to normal.

1. I. Text of the poem
Jabberwocky
By : Lewis Carroll
Written in 1871
'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!

2. 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.

3. II. Introduction of the poem
Jabberwocky” is Carroll’s most well-known poem. It is the first of many nonsense
poems set into the text of the English novel Through the Looking-Glass, published in
1872, six years after the more commonly known Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
Because the poem employs conventional structures of grammar and many familiar
words, however, it is not “pure nonsense.” In fact, while both books were composed for
the ten-year-old Alice Liddell, it is generally accepted that Carroll’s studies in logic firmly
ground the thought beneath the imaginative works, so that adults find as much to
appreciate in the novels and poetry as children. The importance of “Jabberwocky” as a
central focus of meaning for the novel is indicated by Carroll’s intention that the
drawing of the Jabberwock should appear as the title-page illustration for Through the
Looking-Glass.
In the novel, Alice goes through a mirror into a room and world where things are
peculiarly backward. She finds a book in a language she doesn’t know, and when she
holds the book up to a mirror, or looking-glass, she is able to read “Jabberwocky,” a
mock-heroic ballad in which the identical first and last four lines enclose five stanzas
charting the progress of the hero: warning, setting off, meditation and preparation,
conquest, and triumphant return.

4. III. Unknown words of the Poem
According to the character of Humpty-Dumpty (one of the character in Through the Looking-
Glass Novel :
Brillig : four o'clock in the afternoon -- the time when you begin broiling
things for dinner.
Slithy : slimy and lithe. 'Lithe' is the same as 'active'.
Toves : curious creatures that are something like badgers, something
like lizards, and something like corkscrews. They make their nests under sun-
dials and live on cheese.
To gyre : to go round and round like a gyroscope.
To gimble : to make holes like a gimblet.
Wabe : the grass-plot round a sun-dial. It is called like that because it
goes a long way before it, and a long way behind it. And a long way beyond it on
each side.
Mimsy : miserable and flimsy
Mome rath : 'rath' is a sort of green pig. Humpty-Dumpty is not certain about
the meaning of 'mome', but thinks it's short for "from home"; meaning that
they'd lost their way.
To outgrabe : 'outgribing' is something between bellowing and whistling, with
a kind of sneeze in the middle.
Bandersnatch : A swift moving creature with snapping jaws, capable of
extending its neck. suggesting that a 'bandersnatch' might be an animal that
hunts the leader of a group.
Beamish : Radiantly beaming, happy, cheerful. Although Carroll may have
believed he had coined this word, it is cited in the Oxford English Dictionary in
1530.
Borogove : a thin shabby-looking bird with its feathers sticking out all round,
something like a live mop." In explanatory book notes Carroll describes it further

5. as "an extinct kind of Parrot. They had no wings, beaks turned up, made their
nests under sun-dials and lived on veal." In Hunting of the Snark, Carroll says that
the initial syllable of borogove is pronounced as in borrow rather than as in
worry.
Burbled : In a letter of December 1877, Carroll notes that "burble" could
be a mixture of the three verbs 'bleat', 'murmur', and 'warble', although he
didn't remember creating it.
Chortled : "Combination of 'chuckle' and 'snort'." (OED)
Frabjous : Possibly a blend of fair, fabulous, and joyous. Definition from
Oxford English Dictionary, credited to Lewis Carroll.
Frumious : Combination of "fuming" and "furious". In Hunting of the Snark
Carroll comments, "take the two words 'fuming' and 'furious'. Make up your
mind that you will say both words, but leave it unsettled which you will say first.
Now open your mouth and speak. If your thoughts incline ever so little towards
'fuming', you will say 'fuming-furious'; if they turn, by even a hair's breadth,
towards 'furious', you will say 'furious-fuming'; but if you have the rarest of gifts,
a perfectly balanced mind, you will say 'frumious'.
Galumphing : Perhaps used in the poem a blend of 'gallop' and 'triumphant'.
Used later by Kipling, and cited by Webster as "To move with a clumsy and heavy
tread"
Jabberwocky : When a class in the Girls' Latin School in Boston asked Carroll's
permission to name their school magazine The Jabberwock, he replied: "The
Anglo-Saxon word 'wocer' or 'wocor' signifies 'offspring' or 'fruit'. Taking 'jabber'
in its ordinary acceptation of 'excited and voluble discussion,
Jubjub bird : 'A desperate bird that lives in perpetual passion', according to
the Butcher in Carroll's later poem The Hunting of the Snark. 'Jub' is an ancient
word for a jerkin or a dialect word for the trot of a horse (OED). It might make
reference to the call of the bird resembling the sound "jub, jub".

6. Manxome : Possibly 'fearsome'; A portmanteau of "manly" and "buxom", the
latter relating to men for most of its history; or relating to Manx people.
Snicker-snack : possibly related to the large knife, the snickersnee.
Tulgey : Carroll himself said he could give no source for Tulgey. Could be
taken to mean thick, dense, dark. It has been suggested that it comes from the
Anglo-Cornish word "Tulgu", 'darkness', which in turn comes from the Cornish
language "Tewolgow" 'darkness, gloominess'.
Uffish : Carroll noted "It seemed to suggest a state of mind when the
voice is gruffish, the manner roughish, and the temper huffish".
Vorpal : Carroll said he could not explain this word, though it has been
noted that it can be formed by taking letters alternately from "verbal" and
"gospel".
IV. Analysis of each Stanza
Stanza 1
Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves
And the mome raths outgrabe
This first stanza is so tightly packed with unknown information that without
proper acclimation to the nonsense words, the reader nearly veers off the page in
confusion. From here, the poem becomes slightly more approachable, telling the tale of
a boy going into the dark and gloomy woods to slay the Jabberwock. The poem is
engineered like a small fairy tale, and the use of nonsense words adds a whimsical
element that further solidifies the element of the fantastic. Employed within an already
heavily fantasy-ridden novel, Carroll strips cohesion and familiarity in the reader to the
bone.

7. Stanza 2
Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!
The second stanza of Jabberwocky is a warning from a person who is presumably
the father of the hero of the story. He warns his son to be careful of and to avoid three
different monsters; the Jabberwock, the Jubjub bird and the Bandersnatch. The third of
these monsters is described as 'frumious', a word which Lewis Carroll said means
'fuming and furious'.
Stanza 3
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.
The third stanza the hero takes his weapon, heads off, and spends a good long
time trying to find these evil creatures. When the hero has been seeking his foes for a
while, and is now taking a break.So he rests by the tree, and loses himself thinking for a
little while.
Stanza 4
And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

8. The forth stanza tell about characteristic of Jabberwocky. "eyes of flame." This
makes him seem like a dragon. When Jabberwocky came, it came whiffling. Whistling
can also mean "to move very fast”.
Stanza 5
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.
The Fifth stanza tell about the fight between the hero and Jabberwocky. It’s like
a one-two punch but with a sword. We can picture the hero, here, swinging his sword
quickly back and forth. The "through and through" part tells us that the blade is in fact
making contact with the Jabberwocky and finally, the hero managed to kill Jabberwocky
with beheaded.
Stanza 6
"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.
The sixth stanza tell the hero back to home after kill Jabberwocky and his parent
then asks the son to give him a hug and they celebrate the victory.
Stanza 7
Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

9. The seventh stanza, It’s the exact same difficult, whimsical stanza as the first. It
tells that everything after this incident return back to normal. The repetition of the first
stanza would seem to indicate that all thing in Wonderland have gone back to the way
they were before the Jabberwocky came.
V. Sound Devices
Rhyme scheme
'Jabberwocky' consists of seven quatrains, using both ballad rhyme schemes, 'ABAB' and
'ABCB'. Instead of alternating four-stress and three-stress lines, four of the stanzas use
the 'ABAB' rhyme scheme, while three use 'ABCB'.
VI. Figure of speech
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
The poem has a metaphor in it. There actually is not very much figurative language if
you just read it directly.
VII. Symbolism and Imagery
Symbolism
Dragon
Most of the poem describe about the Jabberwocky. It symbolizes about
something violence that beat by the hero. Jabberwocky here also symbolizes
about fantasy. We know that the poem is full of the fantasy or unreal.
Imagery
Scary beast

10. "Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
When we read the poem, we will imagine the scary beast.
Bravery
We can see the bravery of the boy as a hero to find the Jabberwocky and then he
beat it.
VIII. Tone
One important element to determine the poems tone is the storyline. Overall, the
poem is about a battle between a boy and a vicious monster called the Jabberwocky.
The reader could interpret this storyline as more of an epic battle or a playful battle. For
example, a serious tone could be shown in the fifth stanza when it describes the battle
between the boy and the Jabberwocky. In line nineteen and twenty it states “He left it
dead, and with its head/He went galumphing back.” The fact that the boy decapitated
the Jabberwocky sets a serious tone rather than playful. A playful tone would only state
that the boy killed the monster; decapitation is gruesome. On the other hand, the
storyline could interpret a playful tone since this is a typical fairytale story such as “Jack
and the Beanstalk” where Jack kills the giant. Although most fairytales in the early 19th
century were made for adults; this poem was written in 1872. The famous Brother’s
Grimm had already rewritten fairytales and folktales that were more fitted for children.
Thus, the “Jabberwocky” is a poem that is most likely intended for children.
IX. Point of view
The story is told by a narrator, but in the second and sixth stanza the narration is
interrupted by a literal speech by the father. About who the speaker of the poem is, it is
a little bit confusing, because we know, the poem was found on the page of the book by

11. Allice in the Trough Looking-Glass Novel, but so far, we can see the point of view of
narrator is a third speaker in the poem.
X. Theme
Heroic quest
This theme is the heroic quest, because, we know in the poem, a boy as a hero doing
a quest to fight the Jabberwock. Finally, he found the Jabberwock and he beat it.
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
Good versus Evil
In this poem "Good vs. Evil" is linked with the violence of the Jabberwocky." When
good (our hero) and evil (the Jabberwock) meet in this story, violence ensues.
"Jabberwocky" pits the individual (one lone man) against a mythical beast. Since this
beast doesn't exist in our world, it becomes something bigger, a kind of metaphor for
Evil with a capital E. If it were simply human vs. human – say, white knight vs. black
knight – you could draw the same conclusions, but perhaps the outcome would be less
surprising. One small man triumphing over a big huge beast is an order of magnitude
unto itself.

12. XI. References
http://www.alice-in-wonderland.net/jabberwocky.html/
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061029185856AAtbPpi
Jabberwocky. (2013, November 2). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved
04:41, November 10, 2013, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jabberwocky&oldid=579897560
Shmoop Editorial Team. (November 11, 2008).Jabberwocky Speaker. Retrieved
November 11, 2013, from http://www.shmoop.com/jabberwocky/speaker.html