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           Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)

        from Through the Looking Glass

                    Jabberwocky

    '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 wiffling 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 hast 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.

 

Alice found the above poem printed backwards in a book (while she sat watching the White King, and feeling a bit anxious). Holding it up to a glass she was able to read it, although not necessarily to understand it. Luckily, five chapters later, Humpty Dumpty volunteered to explain it to her. His success in this is debatable, however, given the number of literary types who have found the need to write their own interpretations.

The first stanza was published in the comic journal Mischmasch in 1855 under the title Stanza of Anglo-Saxon Poetry. The later full poem, Humpty's explanation, and inded the entire Through the Looking-Glass was published in 1871, and in many other editions since. For example,

  • Carroll, Lewis. Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There. New York: St. Martin's Press Inc, 1953.