Jabberwocky

I was in junior high school (grades 7-9) when I memorized this poem by Lewis Carroll.

Over 20 years later, I still remember most of the poem, but I always get tripped up about half way through. Recently the poem has been the center concept behind a couple of movies. Most recently the Tim Burton "Alice in Wonderland" was one to utilize this tale, but perhaps my favorite adaptation of the poem was the movie "the last mimsy".

'All Mimsy were the borogroves' is the line. What does it mean? Well, the movie combined time travel and human advancement in a way that brought in the innocence of children while countering it with an adult's misunderstanding and hardening of a willingness to accept something new like a child would. Maybe that's what Carroll tried to get us to do. By that I mean try something new and unexpected.

Alas, that's not what carroll meant. Mimsy is actually a reference to being miserable and flimsy. Hence the word mimsy or possibly miserimsy. The borogroves refers to a type of bird. A miserable and flimsy bird.

This is two ways to look at dreams and aspirations. On the one hand, they are new and exciting, while another way is to see them as depressing and a waste of time. When properly defined, the stanza refers to a kind of mediocrity. It's the feeling that life begins to become stale.

Carroll's intent was to write a poem badly, but even bad poems have their own sense about them. That stale existence of the first and last stanza combined with a determination as to how to write badly has now become a refocusing and innovation. Anyone who has ever tried reading the "coney island of the mind" could tell you that a meaningless poem is never truly meaningless.

The only difference between "coney island of the mind" and "jabberwocky", is that you don't need music for reciting "jabberwocky".

Seriously.

To that regard, the poem reads:

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 whiffling 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, has 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.