another day, another poem

A poem has got to speak to a person, don't you think? That's what makes one like it. Or hate it (when it doesn't). The poems I've posted so far have spoken to the part of me that's consumed with the transience of life, memory, love. Most of the poems I feel connected to have this subject matter in common. That, and, they're lyrically written. But that's not the only kind of poem I like, as you will learn today. There must be a mischievous side to me - a playful, immature, irreverent side that I think Lewis Caroll sums up very well with today's poem, from Alice in Wonderland (still one of my favourite pieces of literature, btw). Below the poem I add a bonus track, an excerpt of Humpty Dumpty's Explication of Jabberwocky. Just so you know.

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.

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.


Humpty Dumpty's Explication of Jabberwocky

"You seem very clever at explaining words, Sir," said Alice. "Would you kindly tell me the meaning of the poem Jabberwocky?"
"Let's hear it," said Humpty Dumpty. "I can explain all the poems that ever were invented - and a good many that haven't been invented just yet."
This sounded very hopeful, so Alice repeated the first verse:

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"That's enough to begin with," Humpty Dumpty interrupted: "There are plenty of hard words there. 'Brillig' means four o'clock in the afternoon - the time when you begin broiling things for dinner."
"That'll do very well," said Alice: "and 'slithy'?"
"Well, 'slithy' means 'lithe and slimy.' 'Lithe' is the same as 'active.' You see, it's like a portmanteau - there are two meanings packed up into one word."
"I see it now," Alice remarked thoughtfully: "and what are 'toves'?"
"Well, 'toves' are something like badgers - they're something like lizards - and they're something like corkscrews."
"They must be very curious creatures."
"They are that," said Humpty Dumpty: "also they make their nests under sundials - also they live on cheese."
"And what's to 'gyre' and to 'gimble'?"
"To 'gyre' is to go round and round like a gyroscope. To 'gimble' is to make holes like a gimlet."
"And the 'wabe' is the grass plot round a sundial, I suppose?" said Alice, surprised at her own ingenuity.
"Of course it is. It's called 'wabe,' you know, because it goes a long way before it, and a long way behind it - "
"And a long way beyond it on each side," Alice added.
"Exactly so. Well then, 'mimsy' is 'flimsy and miserable' (there's another portmanteau for you). And a 'borogove' is a thin shabby-looking bird with its feathers sticking out all round - something like a live mop."
"And then there's 'mome raths'?" said Alice. "If I'm not giving you too much trouble."
"Well, a 'rath' is a sort of green pig: but 'mome' I'm not certain about. I think it's short for 'from home' - meaning that they'd lost their way, you know."
"And what does 'outgrabe' mean?
"Well, 'outgribing' is something between bellowing and whistling, with a kind of sneeze in the middle: however, you'll hear it done, maybe - down in the wood yonder - and when you've once heard it you'll be quite content. Who's been repeating all that hard stuff to you?"
"I read it in a book," said Alice.