Lewis Carroll and Nonsense Poetry
Tim Burton's latest movie gives us the opportunity to (re)discover an English classic: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, by Lewis Carroll. If you want to know more about the author, whose real name was Charles Dodgson, click here.
An example of nonsense poetry:
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.
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 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.
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 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.
And how the heck should that nonsensical poem be pronounced? Listen to Justin Brett's reading of Jabberwocky in the following movie. (Note: this is a virtual movie showing Lewis Carroll reading the poem)
Portmanteau words?
Lewis Carroll coined the term portmanteau to refer to the blending of two words to create a new one, combining the meanings of the two original words. The term portmanteau in this sense first appeared in Humpty Dumpty's explanation of the term "slithy" in Through the Looking Glass: `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.'
Click here to play with portmanteau words.
Click here to play with portmanteau words.
Do you feel like writing nonsense poetry?
You will find some help in the portmanteau-word and nonsensical-word generators below:
Here are some of the absurd poems written by the 1L2 class: can you guess what they're about? Enjoy...
POEM #1:
Can you see the floweruption, just right in the mountains ?
It is just globeautiful, as if a winnera began !
Look ! There is a secreternal inside the bubbles of that little girl's machine.
Come on now, lets eat the sandwicherry, Babye, in the park where the lake is still shining by the sun...
Can you see the floweruption, just right in the mountains ?
It is just globeautiful, as if a winnera began !
Look ! There is a secreternal inside the bubbles of that little girl's machine.
Come on now, lets eat the sandwicherry, Babye, in the park where the lake is still shining by the sun...
POEM #2:The Geseable
At first, when I saw the Geseable,
I thought he had eaten a demonkey,
But he was lowerly and martkey,
And he became my friendurable.
I thought he had eaten a demonkey,
But he was lowerly and martkey,
And he became my friendurable.
POEM #3:
In Lillyon, there are normpersongs:
In this worldness, there are ligers,
There are horscars and hatreesongs,
Life is not happsad and easong.
In this worldness, there are ligers,
There are horscars and hatreesongs,
Life is not happsad and easong.
