abberwocky

Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll (a.k.a. Charles Dodgson) is generally considered to be the greatest of all nonsense poems in English. It is so well known that a number of its nonsense words have entered the Oxford English Dictionary. Alice (of Wonderland fame) here, in the paragraph following the poem, puts her finger on the secret of the poem's charm:

"... It seems to fill my head with ideas -- only I don't know exactly what they are."

Although the strange words have no precise meaning, they seem to chime with subtle overtones.

These pages are dedicated to all who have come to like and love this poem which Alice discovers in a book. The poem occurs in the first chapter of Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There

The text of the poem itself
A glossary of some of the words in the poem
The "origins" of Jabberwocky
Try it in French
Is German your language of preference?
A version in computer jargon
Let a grammar and spell checker look at it.
A version from Wall Street
A picture of the Jabberwocky

Mad Hatter More Wonderland-related materials

Last modified: Sep 97