Lewis Carroll's “Jabberwocky”, to put it simply, is complete and utter nonsense. It features in Carroll’s novel, Through the Looking Glass, and is approximately seventy-five percent completely made up words. Even Alice, the main character of the book, is bewildered by it saying, “"It seems very pretty," she said when she had finished it, "but it's rather hard to understand!" (You see she didn't like to confess, even to herself, that she couldn't make it out at all.)” (Carroll 64). So why would Carroll, even in a children’s novel, write a poem with a practically indecipherable lexicon?
While at first the poem’s language seems silly, the babbling style of the poem brings its theme more clearly into focus. The poem itself is about conquering …show more content…
This idea is communicated most strongly in the repetition of the first stanza at the end which is indicative of a return to normalcy, perhaps even to facing new horrible foes. The subject has slain the beast, his father was proud, and now the cycle repeats. Carroll’s absurdist language does not mark “Jabberwocky” as a poem for the young. For children, the poem takes on a meaning similar to dear Alice’s interpretation. Something has died and for the purposes of Through the Looking Glass it does not particularly matter what the rest of the poem pertains to. Much like the novel in which it is housed, this poem uses the abstract and bewildering depths of imagination to delve into the problems that haunt adults subtly, while retaining enough brightness to be a children’s story. There is a fine line between the gibberish of a mad man and the nonsense of a genius and Carroll straddles that line quite …show more content…
A fabricated word, even one with an actual meaning behind it can have any number of syllables and any ending sound. Carroll didn’t have to think of a word that rhymes with toves and held the desired rhythm, he could simply say borgroves. The poem is not limited by the restraints of the english language. The author can say whatever he so pleases without the having to worry about if there is a word that will rhyme, have an appropriate number of syllables, the correct stress pattern, and mean precisely what he wishes to say. This practice is not entirely uncommon among writers of verse. The words must bend in exactly the correct manner with which to communicate one’s vision, while following the rules of verse. Sometimes this isn’t possible within the language and new words must be invented. Shakespeare famously invented over seventeen hundred words. If the word for what one wanted to say and how they wished to say it didn’t exist, it must be promptly created. Carroll does this in a quite methodical manner. The rhythm and sound of his words are evoquative of the events surrounding them. The first stanza sounds like a journey with its up-down rhythms and open sounds. The second a warning with its shift between run on and trail off rhythm and its sharp consonants combined with s’s. The third stanza has a sense of pause with the ending t sounds. The fourth shortens the rhythm a tad, giving the reader a similar
While at first the poem’s language seems silly, the babbling style of the poem brings its theme more clearly into focus. The poem itself is about conquering …show more content…
This idea is communicated most strongly in the repetition of the first stanza at the end which is indicative of a return to normalcy, perhaps even to facing new horrible foes. The subject has slain the beast, his father was proud, and now the cycle repeats. Carroll’s absurdist language does not mark “Jabberwocky” as a poem for the young. For children, the poem takes on a meaning similar to dear Alice’s interpretation. Something has died and for the purposes of Through the Looking Glass it does not particularly matter what the rest of the poem pertains to. Much like the novel in which it is housed, this poem uses the abstract and bewildering depths of imagination to delve into the problems that haunt adults subtly, while retaining enough brightness to be a children’s story. There is a fine line between the gibberish of a mad man and the nonsense of a genius and Carroll straddles that line quite …show more content…
A fabricated word, even one with an actual meaning behind it can have any number of syllables and any ending sound. Carroll didn’t have to think of a word that rhymes with toves and held the desired rhythm, he could simply say borgroves. The poem is not limited by the restraints of the english language. The author can say whatever he so pleases without the having to worry about if there is a word that will rhyme, have an appropriate number of syllables, the correct stress pattern, and mean precisely what he wishes to say. This practice is not entirely uncommon among writers of verse. The words must bend in exactly the correct manner with which to communicate one’s vision, while following the rules of verse. Sometimes this isn’t possible within the language and new words must be invented. Shakespeare famously invented over seventeen hundred words. If the word for what one wanted to say and how they wished to say it didn’t exist, it must be promptly created. Carroll does this in a quite methodical manner. The rhythm and sound of his words are evoquative of the events surrounding them. The first stanza sounds like a journey with its up-down rhythms and open sounds. The second a warning with its shift between run on and trail off rhythm and its sharp consonants combined with s’s. The third stanza has a sense of pause with the ending t sounds. The fourth shortens the rhythm a tad, giving the reader a similar