Jabberwocky

Fiction | Poem | Middle Grade | Published in 1871

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Index of Terms

Literary Devices

Form & Meter

“Jabberwocky” is a traditional ballad. Its 28 lines are divided into seven, four-line stanzas, or quatrains. The first three lines of each stanza are written in iambic tetrameter (meaning four stressed syllables per line), and the last line of each stanza is written in iambic trimeter (meaning three stressed syllables per line). The rhyme scheme is abab.

The ballad is an old form of poetry that in both form and function has its beginnings in medieval Scottish dance-songs and the medieval French “ballade.” Originally, it was a narrative set to song, or a story-song, sung by wandering troubadours and by bards entertaining at court. It was primarily by means of their repertoire of ballads that they made their living, as it was the dominant form of popular poetry. And its purpose (with little significant variation up to the present day) is to tell a story in such an exciting and memorable way that an audience, whether it be literate or illiterate, is able to easily follow the narrative and get caught up in the action.

The speaker, or persona, of a ballad does this by addressing the reader from a third person, omniscient point of view, meaning, in this case, that it is impersonal. The speaker does not take sides in the story, is not vested in a particular outcome, and does not offer any kind of direct moralizing or value judgements. He (traditionally speaking, a “he”) tells the tale in as simple and direct a manner as possible without lengthy descriptions. Rather, through use of vivid imagery and action he shows what happens. He simply tells the story, usually in an episodic manner, leaping from significant event to significant event—there is little to no filler to flesh out a character, or to describe a monster, etc. Transitions, too, are rarely used. Additionally, a ballad’s subject matter is nearly always community based, about people and events or commonly known stories that its listeners will easily recognize. And the stories themselves are usually sensational, often shocking, lurid, vulgar; or, at the very least vivid and explicit.

Figurative Language: Nonsense verse

This guide references the terms “nonsense” and “neologisms” frequently. Both of these terms help define Nonsense verse, which is a unique form of poetry often associated with children’s verse. According to Britannica, however, Nonsense verse can and should read like a departure from the traditional, “ritualistic gibberish of children’s counting-out rhymes in that it makes these [nonsense] words sound purposeful” (“nonsense verse.” Britannica.com). Nonsense verse, then, is a specific type of verse with a specific type of language, and that language has specific stylistic elements, all of which comes together to create meaning from so-called nonsense. Form, storytelling, and neologisms are just a few literary devices that combine to create Nonsense verse. As a literary device itself, Nonsense verse doesn’t seek to moralize. If it does teach, it does so by allowing readers an active role in the creation of meaning.

Nonsense verse purportedly began with poet and artist Edward Lear’s 1846 publication The Book of Nonsense. The book’s limericks, joined with Lear’s illustrations, inspired Carroll’s work, including Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1872). Britannica lists The Bad Child’s Book of Beasts (1896) by Hilaire Belloc and Laura E. Richards’s Tirra Lirra (1932) as other standout examples of Nonsense verse.

Figurative Language: Neologisms

“Jabberwocky” is probably best known for its unique, invented language, or neologisms. A neologism is a newly created word; a word that, until created by an author, is not a part of the language. It may seem a rare and strange thing to do, but as it turns out, new words are being made all the time. Experts believe as many as 5400 new words (all languages, worldwide) enter use every year (“How new words are born.” Bodle, Andy. The Guardian, 4 Feb. 2016). In English, roughly 650 to 1000 new words are officially added to the language annually. During the 20th century alone, an estimated 90,000 new words were added to the English language (“Why Do Some New Words Last and Others Fade?” Atkins Bookshelf, 31 Jul. 2015). In a literary context, neologisms are created by an author for any number of reasons, including to describe new thoughts, feelings, to name new things, etc., as well as to simply entertain. Lewis Carroll was particularly well known for the invention and use of new language. Some scholars maintain that only the Bible and Shakespeare have contributed more to the English language than Carroll has with the two Alice books. Specifically, he is credited with the creation of a particular type of neologism he called the “portmanteau word.” A portmanteau is a large trunk or suitcase made of stiff leather that opens into two equal parts. A portmanteau word is made up of parts of other words resulting in one word with a new meaning:

Humpty Dumpty’s theory, of two meanings packed into one word like a portmanteau, seems to me the right explanation for all. For instance, take the two words ‘fuming’ and ‘furious.’ Make up your mind that you will say both words, but leave it unsettled which you will say first. Now open your mouth and speak. If your thoughts incline ever so little towards ‘fuming,’ you will say ‘fuming-furious’; if they turn, by even a hair’s breadth, towards ‘furious,’ you will say ‘furious-fuming’; but if you have that rarest of gifts, a perfectly balanced mind, you will say ‘frumious’ (Carroll, Lewis. Preface. “The Hunting of the Snark,” by Carroll. Macmillan, 1887).

I am afraid I can’t explain ‘vorpal blade’ for you-nor yet ‘tulgey wood,’ but I did make an explanation once for ‘uffish thought’! It seemed to suggest a state of mind when the voice is gruffish, the manner roughish, and the temper huffish. Then again, as to ‘burble’ if you take the three verbs ‘bleat, murmer, and warble,’ then select the bits I have underlined, it certainly makes ‘burble,’ though I am afraid I can’t distinctly remember having made it that way (from Carroll’s letter written in reply to Maud Standen dated December 1877, six years after publication of Through the Looking Glass).

There has been a tendency over the last 150 years or so to try to figure out what the various neologisms and portmanteau words in “Jabberwocky” mean, or in some sense to translate them into “regular language.” “Jabberwocky,” though, is not a puzzle meant to be solved in that sense. Rather, the pleasure one gets in reading “Jabberwocky” comes from the tension, or play, between sense and nonsense; from the way in which a variety of meanings may be imagined or derived from context and sound. Nevertheless, the compulsion to provide a glossary that provides the study guide reader with a sense of what past readers of “Jabberwocky” think the neologisms and portmanteau words mean, is appropriate, in that it provides readers new to the poem a sense of how the work has been perceived in the past. However, given that the point of the poem is to enjoy the play of words and sense, no attempt has been made to formalize the following definitions (see Index of Terms) in any way. They have simply been culled from a variety of sources, the neologisms matched with quoted definitions.