Wednesday 1 February 2012

Understanding Jabberwocky

I found this website really helpful in understanding what the poem really means.

http://wordsyoudontknow.com/2009/09/the-jabberwocky-words-you-dont-know-all-of-them/


Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll
Literal Translation

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
It was evening and the smooth active badgers
Were scratching and boring holes into the hillside,
All unhappy were the parrots
And the grave turtles squeaked out.


By looking at Humpty Dumpty's explanation from "Through the Looking Glass" this is how the words can be translated:

Brillig is no longer evening, but about 4pm in the afternoon.
Slithy is now slimy and active rather than smooth and active.
Toves are no longer badgers exactly, they are “something like badgers–they’re something like lizards–and they’re something like corkscrews.” And “they make their nests under sun-dials–also they live on cheese.”
Gyre is to spin like a gyroscope rather than to scratch.
Gimble is still to bore holes, but now specifically after the manner of a gimlet, which is a small hand tool with a T-shaped handle for boring hole.
Wabe is now the area around a sundial, rather than a hillside.
Mimsy is still unhappy; flimsy and miserable.
Borogove is no longer a parrot, but a thin shabby-looking bird with its feathers sticking out all round.
Mome now probably means lost (but Humpty Dumpty is not quite sure). However, it does not mean grave.
Raths have become green pigs rather than turtles, possibly a joke on the fact that there are very few green animals.
Outgrabe has not changed its meaning much. However, we should note that Carroll uses this word in The Hunting of the Snark (published after Through the Looking Glass – there is an excerpt below). In The Hunting of the Snark the word plainly means to squeal out in terror, whereas Humpty Dumpty gives it the much more whimsical meaning of something between bellowing and whistling, with a kind of sneeze in the middle.

This website goes through stanza by stanza.
http://www.shmoop.com/jabberwocky/stanza-1-summary.html

1 comment:

  1. Well done for doing some background research, but in truth this really IS a piece of nonsense - this poem is full of words which, although aren't realy words, evoke certain images. Try to give it YOUR OWN interpretation too - that was what the poem was about in a sense...

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