'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.
Corey Weber
Prof. Wexler
English 459esm
September 23, 2013
Explifies
Poetry is not always simple forth coming pieces of work
that contain all of their meaning in an easy simple format. Poetry is full of
different uses of language, analogies, and context creating a different meaning
from words, and images. Many poets like to use several different techniques
within their poetry to show the range of their emotion and the depths in which
poetry can take its reader. One poem that exemplifies this not only uses many
of these techniques but also twists the English language to create new words
and show the complexity of the language itself is Lewis Carroll’s The Jabberwocky.
Carroll’s The
Jabberwocky is an excellent example of how complicated the English language
can be. Carroll creates new words creating a mythical creature and story within
this poem. The words are those of Carroll’s own creating and several are two
words put together to create a new meaning. “Humpty Dumpty's explication of
"Jabberwocky" in Through the Looking Glass equates language with a
portmanteau, a large leather suitcase that opens into two separate
compartments. Explaining "slithy" as a combination of "lithe"
and "slimy," Humpty Dumpty refers to words in the language of
travelers' baggage: "You see it's like a portmanteau--there are two
meanings packed up into one word" (Goldfarb) . With this
explanation we can see that there was thought put into the words that Carroll
was choosing to use within this poem. The nonsensical words, is something that
strikes interest in the readers of this poem. Upon reading the poem, one can
see why children would love the poem. Children are the creators of this made up
words; everyday they are creating new ones because they sound funny, or they
just haven’t figured out how to pronounce certain letters yet. The poem like
many of its words also has to different meanings. The first being the more noticeable,
is about a boy’s journey into manhood and all that he will face along the way;
the second being hidden within in the words themselves, is the exciting journey
that is the English language (language in general). “The pleasure of the poem
resides not in the two independent experiences of the poem but in their
coincidence in a text that "packs" them together” (Goldfarb) . This poem is a
building block for those just learning the English language and how all of its
components work together and those teaching parts of speech to both English and
non-English speakers. As well as showing the language is a hurdle that both
young men and women will have to face as they come into adulthood. The Jabberwocky is almost a coming of
age poem for those who have yet to go through these hurdles in life. This poem seems
to almost make more sense to those of a younger age because they have larger
imaginations, while adults struggle with it because of the unknown words found
within. The poem and its author seem to be almost trying to make this
connection, showing that if a child can relax and have fun with the poem, then
adults should too. The worry of being correct and having the right answer all
the time is not something that one should be looking for in a poem; they should
just be enjoying the journey of it.
The form of the poem is not in that of the a,b,a,b
format, in fact it in a format all its own. Although not all of the lines rhyme
with another, each stanza is still of have at least two rhyming lines. For
example the first stanza is in a,b,c,b format followed by d,e,f,e, in the
second, g,h,g,h in the third and so on; thus giving the poem a rhyming feel to
it, but not one that feels too much like a limerick or nursery rhyme. The form
of the poem helps to convey the message better because it allows the reader to
see that there is more going on, you just have to figure out what it is. This
poem is a great example of expository writing. It gives a lot of information,
and ideas but it us to the reader as to how they use them. “Far from being
nonsense, each line is meticulously crafted to give the impression that it is
saying something serious. In Alice's own words, "It seems to fill my head
with ideas -- only I don't know exactly what they are. This is exactly what a
good expository text should do. First, present an idea, which of course will be
fuzzy until you take the second step, which is to clearly explain it” (Yaffe) . The poem clearly
explains what it is that is going on and what is the outcome of it all. The
words are just the vehicle in which this story is presented; it is up to the
readers to imagine what it is. The form and the description within the poem leads
to the development of what is going on. Most readers know how to read and
understand the basics of sentence structure, with this one can figure out which
words are the nouns, verbs, adjectives, and so on thus arriving at the meaning
of the poem.
In all, the poem is a great teaching tool for those of
all ages, it is a fun poem to read, hear, and decipher. With so many words
sounding the same and having different meanings within the English language, it
is easy to see as to why it has become easier to teach parts of speech using The Jabberwocky instead of traditional
methods. “Language form and meaning are related in complex ways.
Meaning
is distributed across many aspects of an utterance: its argument structure, its
closed-class and open-class forms, and its intonation. However, the contributions
to meaning of each of these aspects are highly overlapping. This information redundancy
can help listeners recover from communication errors (Wolff, 1991) as well as
assist them in learning new elements of the language. The Jabberwocky poem
illustrates this idea very nicely. Although it is filled with novel words, readers
(even as young as Alice) can still infer some of what is being said. When
people hear a novel word, they can induce part of its meaning from information
conveyed by other aspects of the whole utterance (Billman)
Using all that has been
learned thus far, a person can pick up a copy of The Jabberwocky and see that "Beware the Jabberwocky (noun),
my son! / The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! / Beware the Jubjub bird
(noun), and shun / The frumious (adjective) Bandersnatch (noun)!" / He
took his vorpal (adjective) sword in hand: / Long time the manxome (adjective) foe
he sought-- / So rested he by the Tumtum (noun) tree, / And stood awhile in
thought. / And, as in uffish (adverb)
thought he stood, / The Jabberwock (noun), with eyes of flame, / Came whiffling
(verb) through the tulgey (adjective) wood, / And burbled (verb) as it came! / One,
two! One, two! And through and through / The vorpal (adjective) blade went
snicker-snack (adverb)! / He left it dead, and with its head / He went
galumphing (verb) back, etc. All of the made up words within the poem gain
their meaning from the words found around them and how the reader deciphers
what the author is trying to say.
In the end, one should not take poetry too seriously, in
doing so one may lose the meaning in a poem that the author had originally
intended for it. It takes a team effort between the reader and poem to come up
with the core meaning. But it is supposed to be an experience in doing it, not
a struggle. Most poems are not written to confuse the reader, so take the time
to see what it is that is trying to be said and remember to pay attention to
all of the words being used to figure out the poems true meaning.
Works Cited
Billman, Angel Cabrera and Dorrit.
"Language-Driven Concept Learning: Deciphering Jabberwocky." Journal
of Experimental Psychology; Learning, Memory, and Cognition (1996):
539-555. Web.
Goldfarb, Nancy. "Carroll's Jabberwocky." Explicator
(1999). web.
Yaffe, Philip.
"http://ubiquity.acm.org.libproxy.csun.edu/article.cfm?id=1386855."
May 2008. Ubiquity. Web. 23 september 2013.
