Jabberwocky - An English Nonsense Poem

"Jabberwocky" is a nonsense poem written by Lewis Carol about the killing of a creature named "the Jabberwock".

It features in his 1871 novel Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, the spin-off of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865). The book recounts Alice's discoveries inside the back-to-front universe of Looking-Glass Land. 

In an early scene wherein she first experiences the chess piece characters White King and White Queen, Alice finds a book written in an apparently muddled language. Understanding that she is going through an upset world, she perceives that the verses on the pages are written in reflect composing. She holds a mirror to one of the sonnets and peruses the reflected section of "Jabberwocky". She finds the gibberish stanza as confusing as the odd land she has gone into, later uncovered as a dreamscape.

"Jabberwocky" is viewed as one of the best drivel sonnets written in English. Its energetic, offbeat language has given English rubbish words and neologisms, for example, "galumphing" and "laugh".

References:

"Through the Looking-Glass" (1871) by Lewis Carroll

Contact:

[e-mail]

@anniethereckless on Instagram