The Edmondson Blog

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.

Jabberwocky was written by Lewis Carroll and included in his book Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There published in 1872. The poem was a parody designed to show how not to write a poem.

Many of the words in the poem are of Carroll's own invention. In the book, Humpty Dumpty gives some definitions and later Carroll gave some more but maintained that he did not know what some of the words meant. The words chortled and galumphing have entered the English language.

Bandersnatch: A swift moving creature with snapping jaws, capable of extending its neck.
Borogove: A thin shabby-looking bird with its feathers sticking out all round, something like a live mop.
Brillig: Four o'clock in the afternoon: the time when you begin broiling things for dinner.
Burbled: Possibly a mixture of bleat, murmur, and warble.
Chortled: Combination of chuckle and snort.
Frabjous:Probably a blend of fair, fabulous, and joyous .
Frumious: Combination of fuming and furious.
Galumphing: Perhaps a blend of gallop and triumphant. Used to describe a way of trotting down hill, while keeping one foot further back than the other.
Gimble: To make holes as does a gimlet.
Gyre: To go round and round although Carroll also wrote that it meant to scratch like a dog.
Jubjub: A desperate bird that lives in perpetual passion.
Manxome: Fearsome; the word is of unknown origin.
Mimsy: Combination of miserable and flimsy.
Mome: Possibly short for from home, meaning that the raths had lost their way.
Outgrabe (past tense; present tense outgribe): Something between bellowing and whistling, with a kind of sneeze in the middle.
Rath: A sort of green pig.
Slithy: Combination of slimy and lithe.
Tove: A combination of a badger, a lizard, and a corkscrew. They are very curious looking creatures which make their nests under sundials and eat only cheese. Humpty Dumpty explains that gyre and gimble, i.e. rotate and bore, is in reference to the toves being partly corkscrew.
Tulgey: Thick, dense, dark.
Uffish: A state of mind when the voice is gruffish, the manner roughish, and the temper huffish.
Wabe: The grass plot around a sundial. It is called a wabe because it goes a long way before it, and a long way behind it, and a long way beyond it on each side.