{"id":940,"date":"2010-08-10T08:00:02","date_gmt":"2010-08-09T20:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=940"},"modified":"2013-05-26T18:40:13","modified_gmt":"2013-05-26T06:40:13","slug":"tuesday-poem-jabberwocky-by-lewis-carroll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2010\/08\/10\/tuesday-poem-jabberwocky-by-lewis-carroll\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuesday Poem: “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jabberwocky<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2019Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
\nDid gyre and gimble in the wabe;
\nAll mimsy were the borogoves,
\nAnd the mome raths outgrabe.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeware the Jabberwock, my son!
\nThe jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
\nBeware the Jubjub bird, and shun
\nThe frumious Bandersnatch!\u201d<\/p>\n

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
\nLong time the manxome foe he sought\u2014
\nSo rested he by the Tumtum tree,
\nAnd stood awhile in thought.<\/p>\n

And as in uffish thought he stood,
\nThe Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
\nCame whiffling through the tulgey wood,
\nAnd burbled as it came!<\/p>\n

One, two! One, two! and through and through
\nThe vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
\nHe left it dead, and with its head
\nHe went galumphing back.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
\nCome to my arms, my beamish boy!
\nO frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!\u201d
\nHe chortled in his joy.<\/p>\n

\u2019Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
\nDid gyre and gimble in the wabe;
\nAll mimsy were the borogoves,
\nAnd the mome raths outgrabe.<\/p>\n

by Lewis Carroll<\/p>\n

from Through the Looking Glass<\/em><\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

I could pretend to all sorts of serious reasons for selecting Jabberwocky<\/em><\/strong> as my Tuesday Poem<\/strong>: for example, that it is regarded as one of the finest nonsense poems in the English language, in particular for its use of portmanteaux<\/a>; or that some of the nonsense words, such as “chortled”, have subsequently entered main stream usage.<\/p>\n

But in fact, I have chosen it because it was one of my favourite poems as a child and one of the first I was intrigued enough to learn, of my own volition, to memorise right through. I loved the rhythm and rhyme and nonsense of it that yet managed to tell a thoroughly—and satisfyingly—comprehensible story.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

To see the featured poem on the Tuesday Poem Blog<\/strong>—and link to other Tuesday Poets posting around NZ and the world—either click here <\/a>or on the Quill icon in the sidebar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jabberwocky \u2019Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. \u201cBeware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!\u201d He took his vorpal sword in hand: Long time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=940"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":960,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940\/revisions\/960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}