Day 45: The Jabberwocky

This poem, written by Lewis Carroll for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, is a poem I memorized a long time ago in sixth grade...I was just thinking about it today, wondering if it has any real meaning. We know that some of the characters have meanings, such as the Mad Hatter is actually a social problem given in character form (He stood for those of the working class who made hats--they went mad because there was arsenic in either the machinery or some part that had to do with hat making), the Dodo is a manifestation of Carroll himself, because Dodo was a nickname given to him for his stutter, when he could not say his real name, Dodgson. So, like these characters, does Jabberwocky have real meaning--or is it something totally ridiculous (Historians also say he was very much on drugs when he wrote this--why am I not surprised?)? Food for thought...Anyway, here is the poem:

’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 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.

Think about it....And get back to me on what you think!