JABBERWOCKY
by: Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)
- 'WAS 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! Calloh! 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.
"Jabberwocky" is reprinted
from The Hunting of the Snark and Other Poems and Verses.
Lewis Carroll. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1903. |
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POEMS BY LEWIS CARROLL |
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