“Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll

“Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll

‘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.

If you know Lewis Carroll only through Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, you’re missing out on some wonderfully whimsical words. True, Alice in Wonderland quotes are full of seemingly nonsense phrases. But in this funny poem, which appears in Through the Looking-Glass, Carroll outdid himself. It includes many made-up words that were later explained in the novel—and even one, chortle, that later made it into the American lexicon.