The Style of the Jabberwock

The Jabberwock

'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 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.

Glossary

Word	Carroll's Explanation	Humpty Dumpty's Explanation
brillig	Bryllyg (derived from the verb to bryl or broil). The time of broiling dinner, i.e., the close of the afternoon.	Four o'clock in the afternoon -- the time when you begin broiling things for dinner.
slithy	Slythy (compounded of slimy and lithe). Smooth and active.	Lithe and slimy. Lithe is the same as 'active.' ... It's like a portmanteau -- there are two meanings packed up into one word.
tove	Tove, a species of badger. They had smooth white hair, long hind legs, and short horns like a stag; lived chiefly on cheese. "Toves" should be pronounced to rhyme with "groves".	Something like badgers -- they're something like lizards -- and they are something like corkscrews. ... They make their nests under sundials -- also they live on cheese.
gyre	Gyre, verb (derived from gyaour or giaour, 'a dog'). To scratch like a dog.	To go round and round like a gyroscope.
gimble	Gymble (whence gimblet). To screw out holes in anything.	To make holes like a gimlet.
wabe	Wabe (derived from the verb to swab or soak). The side of a hill (from its being soaked by the rain.)	The grass plot round a sundial ... because it goes a long way before it, and a long way behind it ... and a long way beyond it on each side. (Humpty Dumpty's explanation was made with some "insights" from Alice.)
mimsy	Mimsy (whence mimserable and miserable.) Unhappy.	Flimsy and miserable.
borogoves	Borogove. An extinct kind of parrot. They had no wings, beaks turned up, and made their nests under sundails; lived on veal. The first 'o' in 'borogoves' is pronounced like the 'o' in 'worry'. The word is commonly mispronounced as "borogroves" ... and this misspelling even appears in some American editions of the book.	A thin shabby-looking bird with its feathers sticking out all round -- something like a live mop.
mome		I'm not certain about mome. I think it's short for 'from home' -- meaning that they'd lost their way.
raths		A rath is a sort of green pig.
outgrabe		Outgribing is something between bellowing and whistling, with a kind of sneeze in the middle.

Source: Jabberwocky
Background Image Source: Glenn Josefiak Software Solutions