The Full Text of “Jabberwocky”
1’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
2 Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
3All mimsy were the borogoves,
4 And the mome raths outgrabe.
5“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
6 The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
7Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
8 The frumious Bandersnatch!”
9He took his vorpal sword in hand;
10 Long time the manxome foe he sought—
11So rested he by the Tumtum tree
12 And stood awhile in thought.
13And, as in uffish thought he stood,
14 The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
15Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
16 And burbled as it came!
17One, two! One, two! And through and through
18 The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
19He left it dead, and with its head
20 He went galumphing back.
21“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
22 Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
23O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
24 He chortled in his joy.
25’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
26 Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
27All mimsy were the borogoves,
28 And the mome raths outgrabe.
The Full Text of “Jabberwocky”
1’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
2 Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
3All mimsy were the borogoves,
4 And the mome raths outgrabe.
5“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
6 The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
7Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
8 The frumious Bandersnatch!”
9He took his vorpal sword in hand;
10 Long time the manxome foe he sought—
11So rested he by the Tumtum tree
12 And stood awhile in thought.
13And, as in uffish thought he stood,
14 The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
15Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
16 And burbled as it came!
17One, two! One, two! And through and through
18 The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
19He left it dead, and with its head
20 He went galumphing back.
21“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
22 Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
23O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
24 He chortled in his joy.
25’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
26 Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
27All mimsy were the borogoves,
28 And the mome raths outgrabe.
-
“Jabberwocky” Introduction
-
"Jabberwocky" is a ballad by the English writer Lewis Carroll. The poem originally appeared in Carroll's 1871 novel Through the Looking Glass (the sequel to the famous Alice's Adventures in Wonderland). An example of Victorian nonsense verse, "Jabberwocky" tells a tale of good vs. evil in which a young man sets out to slay a fearsome monster called the "Jabberwock." The poem, which is filled with made-up words, is often praised for its linguistic creativity, appealing just as much to readers' ears as it does to their imaginations.
-
-
“Jabberwocky” Summary
-
It was around four o'clock in the afternoon, and the slimy toves bore holes in the side of the wet hill by spinning around. The borogoves were miserable, and the lost raths whistled and bellowed.
"Watch out for the Jabberwock, my son! Its jaws bite, and its claws could catch you! Watch out for the Jubjub bird, and avoid the fuming, furious Bandersnatch!"
Holding his vorpal sword, the son searched a long while for the fearsome beast. Then, he took a break next to a Tumtum tree and contemplated his situation.
While he was still thinking, the Jabberwock emerged from the dark woods with flaming eyes, making a bleating and warbling sound.
After a noisy clash, the son decapitated the Jabberwock with his sword. He hurried home triumphantly with the Jabberwock's head.
"And have you killed the Jabberwock? Give me a hug, my smiling son! What a fabulous and joyful day! Woo hoo! Hooray!" He chuckled and snorted in happiness.
It was around four o'clock in the afternoon, and the slimy toves bore holes in the side of the wet hill by spinning around. The borogoves were miserable, and the lost raths whistled and bellowed.
-
-
“Jabberwocky” Themes
-
Good vs. Evil
Amidst the whimsical language of "Jabberwocky" lies a seemingly simple tale of good versus evil: a son embarks on a quest to kill a fearsome beast, the Jabberwock, before returning victorious to his father. Yet while upon first glance the poem suggests the inevitable triumph of good over evil, the repetition of the final stanza implies this might not be the case. On the contrary, this repetition suggests that the hero's victory has had little impact on the rest of this world. If that's true, then perhaps the poem argues that the fight against evil is never complete, because danger is always lurking.
The hero's father warns him early on to "beware" three mysterious beasts: the "Jabberwock," the "Jubjub bird," and the "Bandersnatch." The repetition of "beware" in lines 5 and 7 invites anticipation of these strange threats and signals that they are worth fearing despite their silly names. On a sonic level, the short, hard consonant sounds in words like "claws," "catch," "shun," and "snatch" (in Bandersnatch) are rough and unpleasant to the ear, perhaps not unlike the things they describe. Yet even after reading the poem's accompanying text, Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, readers don't have a clear idea of what these beasts look like, nor why the hero is instructed to "beware" them. Their dangerous potential is uncertain, and this makes them all the more frightening. In this sense, Carroll is connecting evil to a fear of the unknown—which is perhaps harder to defeat than a physical monster.
Carroll does later offer a bit more clarity as to what the hero is up against. Just before the loud and hostile Jabberwock emerges from the woods, the hero rests contemplatively by a tree. In line 14, the Jabberwock interrupts the hero's peace with "eyes aflame" and "burbling" sounds. These contrasting images, one peaceful and the other violent, help to separate good from evil on a visual level. On an auditory level, readers can contrast the Jabberwock's sounds with the father's jolly "Callooh! Callay!" (which are joyous—even humorous—rather than menacing).
Yet, despite Carroll describing the Jabberwock as having "eyes," "jaws," "claws," and a "head," readers still don't actually know what it looks like. Instead, Carroll relies only on these simple bodily fragments to present his monster, leaving readers with the task of filling in the gaps. The fact that the Jabberwock remains visually mysterious allows readers' imaginations to run wild, perhaps coming up with something far more terrifying than anything Carroll could ever specifically describe. Once again, the threat or anticipation of an unknown evil is perhaps the most frightening thing about it.
Finally, the fact that the poem begins and ends with the same stanza may be a visual suggestion that the hero has returned home after defeating the enemy and that all is well. Yet, even if we take the time to decipher the words in this stanza (with the help of Through the Looking Glass), it's still an unsettling and even foreboding finale. In it, slimy, badger-like creatures called "toves" bore holes in the side of a hill while borogoves and raths (other strange Carrollian creatures) make bellowing sounds. We can only guess as to the significance of this scene, and its presence instills a sense of mystery, or of lying in wait, from the poem’s onset. If the poem began in mystery, why might the repeated stanza at the end not cause the same effect?
Thus while this specific quest may be resolved with the Jabberwock’s death, we are left to wonder if another threat, perhaps the "frumious Bandersnatch," could be waiting. Even at the point of conflict resolution, we are left uncertain about the presence of evil. Is the story really over? Or is there something else we should "beware?"
- See where this theme is active in the poem.
-
Nonsense and Storytelling
In "Jabberwocky," Carroll combines a familiar form and narrative with very unfamiliar language. Most of his invented words have meanings, as readers can learn from Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, but their initial effect within the poem is one of confusion and nonsense. In most cases, readers can't fully make sense of a poem if they do not know all the words. But by organizing his language in the form of a ballad as well as by framing his tale as a traditional heroic quest, Carroll suggests that it's very possible to imbue nonsensical language with meaning simply through context. Nonsensical language can also make familiar stories seem humorously strange and allows Carroll to gently poke fun at (or, more generously, breathe life into) clichéd adventure stories: so familiar are these tales that they make sense even with made-up words slotted into them like a Mad Lib.
The rhyme scheme and meter of the poem resemble those of a ballad, which is a verse form that tells a story using four-line stanzas (a.k.a. quatrains). With this organization, Carroll's words invite readers' curiosity: there's something reassuring about a poem that rhymes along a specific meter even if the words of the poem itself are nonsensical, for they at least make sense on a basic auditory level. In other words, the poem sounds like a certain kind of story. This form allows words like "toves," "wabe, "borogoves," and "outgrabe" to resonate with whimsy. If they didn't rhyme or obey a specific structure, readers would likely be less tolerant of their oddity. Instead, it's easy enough to imagine the gist of the scene despite about half of the words not being actual words.
The poem’s questing narrative is also common enough for readers to recognize it beneath all the nonsense. We know that a hero sets out to kill a monster (the Jabberwock), even if we don’t fully understand the monster’s identity or the general setting. The heroic quest is a tried and true plot, which allows readers to fill in what they don't understand with their imaginations.
For example, in the fifth stanza, the hero’s "vorpal" blade goes "snicker-snack," after which the Jabberwock dies and the hero goes "galumphing back." We know that these words describe a fight scene between the hero and the Jabberwock even without knowing the words "vorpal," "snicker-snack," or "galumphing." We can make educated guesses about their meanings because of the common narrative of heroes battling monsters. They also sound similar to those meanings (e.g. "galumphing" sounds like "galloping" and "triumphant" at the same time, suggesting the hero's happy, quick return).
The namesake of the poem, the Jabberwock, is perhaps the most striking blend of nonsense and familiarity. Although it has "eyes aflame" and makes a "burbling" noise, its image is undefined. For all we know, it might have wings, horns, or an otherwise odd arrangement of body parts. Yet neither its strange name nor its lack of a full description deter readers from understanding that it is a beast worth fearing. Monsters are historically menacing because they are often not fully described (e.g. a mysterious monster hiding under the bed). In this sense, the Jabberwocky's lack of description actually is familiar because it could look like anything.
In this way, Carroll relies on our imaginations (and our familiarity with monsters) to render an image of the Jabberwock. No two readers' conceptions of the Jabberwock will likely be the same, but that is part of the magic of Carroll's trust in his readers' ability to weave meaning from nonsense.
- See where this theme is active in the poem.
-
-
Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Jabberwocky”
-
Lines 1-4
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.The poem begins with nonsense words. Nearly every noun, adjective, and verb is an invention of Carroll's ("gyre" being the exception), so our initial engagement with the poem happens through its appealing sound rather than its more specific meaning.
Yet even in these initial lines, that sound evokes the sense of an adventurous epic through strong, full rhymes and regular iambic meter. Indeed, this stanza establishes the rhyme scheme that the rest of the poem will follow (for the most part)—an ABAB pattern—as well as the poem's iambic tetrameter. Despite not knowing what the words actually mean, they fall easily into the familiar da-DUM rhythm of an iambic poem:
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
This exact rhyme scheme and meter mimic the style of a lyrical ballad, a poetic form that most often tells a story of love or adventure (in this case, the latter). Carroll thus makes it clear to the reader that this is the beginning of some epic story—quite a feat, considering that so few of these words are foreign to us.
The rest of the stanza is filled with more sonic lushness that makes the words' specific meaning rather, well, meaningless. The word "brillig" shares assonance with the /i/ sounds of "mimsy," while the words "gyre," "gimble," "borogoves" and "outgrabe" each have alliteration and consonance with /g/ and /b/ sounds. "Borogoves" and "mome" are yet another pair of assonance. All these repeated sounds make the poem seem carefully crafted; it comes across as highly literary and poetic, befitting of its ballad form. Of course, given that the poem is also nonsensical, this could be thought of as a good-natured satire of that form: all pomp, no circumstance.
Indeed, since it is difficult to tell what's actually happening in this stanza without the contextual aid of Through the Looking Glass, the poem begins in almost utter mystery. We have trouble knowing what to expect (in fact, we might say the nonsensical quality of the poem defies expectation), but the familiar form of the ballad and the whimsical, creative sounds keep us engaged and curious.
-
Lines 5-8
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!” -
Lines 9-12
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. -
Lines 13-16
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came! -
Lines 17-20
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. -
Lines 21-24
“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy. -
Lines 25-28
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
-
-
“Jabberwocky” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
-
Alliteration
Alliteration pervades each stanza of this poem, imbuing it with a catchy auditory quality that engages readers in the sound of these nonsensical words. Without it, the poem's nonsense words would likely seem rather threatening in their unfamiliarity rather than invitingly interesting. By employing so much alliteration, "Jabberwocky" becomes just as concerned with language itself, and its potential to create meaning through sound, as it does with a general plot.
One especially important example of alliteration occurs in the second stanza. The /b/ of "Beware" connects to the /b/ in "bite," "bird," and "Bandersnatch," all of which have evil connotations within the poem.
Similarly, "Jabberwock," "jaws," and "Jubjub" are connected through their initial /j/ sound, while "claws" and "catch" share a hard /c/ sound. These alliterative links signal that these beings are indeed worthy of bewaring, and intensifies their menacing qualities. Rather than offer us a specific description of a fearsome beast, the poem chooses to invoke fear via sound, letting the harsh, hard /c/ sound communicate meaning.
Other examples of alliteration (and consonance, for that matter) include "Callooh" and "Callay," which the hero's father uses to convey his happiness at the death of the Jabberwock. This pairing, as well as ones like "gyre" and "gimble," show Carroll more at play rather than in the process of conveying a specific meaning. The poem's questing narrative is certainly serious, but we cannot help but imagine Carroll enjoying himself in creating these attractive word sounds. This playful tendency even pokes fun at the heroic questing tale, nudging "Jabberwocky" into the realm of parody. In doing so, the linguistic playfulness and whimsy seem to matter more to this poem than the actual plot of the ballad, which is admittedly blurry thanks to the nonsensical words used to describe it. Even though the reader is met with unfamiliar words from the poem's onset, the appealing language allows for consistent engagement and intrigue throughout. The poem may not actually want to make sense at all, but rather sound interesting enough for our imaginations to wonder and wander.
- See where this poetic device appears in the poem.
-
Assonance
- See where this poetic device appears in the poem.
-
End-Stopped Line
- See where this poetic device appears in the poem.
-
Cacophony
- See where this poetic device appears in the poem.
-
Imagery
- See where this poetic device appears in the poem.
-
Climax (Figure of Speech)
- See where this poetic device appears in the poem.
-
Repetition
- See where this poetic device appears in the poem.
-
Caesura
- See where this poetic device appears in the poem.
-
Enjambment
- See where this poetic device appears in the poem.
-
-
"Jabberwocky" Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Brillig
- Slithy
- Toves
- Gyre
- Gimble
- Wabe
- Mimsy
- Borogoves
- Mome
- Raths
- Outgrabe
- Jabberwock
- Jubjub Bird
- Frumious
- Bandersnatch
- Vorpal
- Manxome
- Whiffling and Burbled
- Tulgey
- Snicker-Snack
- Galumphing
- Beamish
- Frabjous
- Callooh and Callay
- Chortled
-
According to Through the Looking Glass, it is the time in the afternoon when one begins broiling things for dinner, usually around 4 p.m.
- See where this vocabulary word appears in the poem.
-
Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Jabberwocky”
-
Form
The verse form of "Jabberwocky" is that of a ballad, with seven quatrains. Traditionally, a ballad tells a story of love or adventure, and is divided into four-line stanzas that obey a specific rhyme scheme and meter. This is the case here, as the stanzas also follow a fairly regular ABAB rhyme scheme and iambic meter.
Despite the poem's strange language, the fact that it's arranged into a ballad helps readers understand that an adventure or quest is taking place: the specific form of the poem is appropriate to the story, wherein a hero sets out to defeat a monster, the "Jabberwock," and returns home triumphantly.
While "Jabberwocky" does not formally deviate from the ballad form, it certainly seems to play with it by making little to no sense at all in many places (again, because so many of these words were made up by Carroll). In effect, readers rely on the familiar ballad form for the poem's story to remain comprehensible on a basic level. Without it, the poem would likely stand as a haphazard jumble of strange words.
-
Meter
The meter of "Jabberwocky" is mostly iambic tetrameter, meaning that there are four feet per line, each foot containing one iambic unit. Take line 14, for example:
The Jabb | erwock, | with eyes | of flame,
The exception to this rule is that the last line of each stanza has only three feet, making it iambic trimeter. Look at line 12:
And stood | awhile | in thought.
In general, this rather straightforward meter complements the poem's diction well. Many words are either just one or two syllables, allowing them to fit snuggly into this iambic form. The overall metrical regularity also helps readers better understand the poem, the actual language of which is quite strange. An easy-to-follow meter makes the poem seem more inviting; if its meter were scattered or disorganized, we would have a much harder time wrapping our heads around a poem that already resists sensibility!
There is a particularly notable moment when the meter breaks. Line 8 has seven syllables, not six, and resists a clear meter. We could scan it as follows:
The frumious Bandersnatch!
This line notably occurs at a moment of startled fear as the father rattles off menacing features of various beasts. The fact that this particular line disobeys the meter actually fits the content—it is meant to stand out from the other lines to create suspense and shock at the existence of this monster.
-
Rhyme Scheme
Four of the poem's seven stanzas follow this regular rhyme scheme:
ABAB
This pattern is another trademark of the ballad form. The regularity of the rhyme scheme supplies the poem with a sense of organization amidst its odd language. In other words, this recognizable pattern of rhymes allows the poem to make sense on a basic auditory level; we may not know what all the words mean, but our ears nevertheless easily latch onto the poem's relatively consistent perfect rhymes. These strong rhymes suggest that the poem is in fact prioritizing sound over the meaning of each of its words. Rather than offer one, precise story using conventional language, the poem wants its readers to listen and imagine a strange world for themselves.
A secondary, but very similar, rhyme scheme characterizes the remaining three stanzas.
ABCB
In each of these stanzas, the "C" line (that is, the third line in the quatrain) is characterized by internal rhyme. For example, in line 11, "tree" does not rhyme with any of the other ending words, but rather has internal rhyme with "he." It's no coincidence that the rhyme scheme changes for the first time in the same moment that the hero rests by the Tumtum tree. This little sonic blip keeps the readers on their toes: we cannot get lulled into lazy reading, just as the hero must remain alert as he waits around for the Jabberwock.
This secondary rhyme scheme repeats in the fifth stanza. In line 19, the quick succession of "dead" and "head" makes the hero's victory seem quick and definitive, as though the Jabberwock may not have been quite as menacing a figure as the father made it out to be. In line 23, when the father announces his joy, the words "day" and "Callay" offer a sense of immediacy to his positive reaction, as though he could not contain his happiness.
The overall impression provided by the poem's many rhymes is that it is playful in its effort to produce as many connected sounds as possible. Even if its language is imprecise and inventive, its sounds are carefully structured.
-
-
“Jabberwocky” Speaker
-
The speaker of "Jabberwocky" reads from a third-person limited perspective and is not an actual character from the poem. The speaker nevertheless seems to be someone from the same world in which the poem takes place, or at least someone deeply familiar with this world's taxonomy.
There are moments when the hero's father seems to take on the role of speaker because of his dialogue—the father is the only character to actually talk in the poem—but we know the father cannot actually be the narrator of the poem itself, since he has to verify with his son whether he did indeed slay the Jabberwock (something the speaker of the poem would have to know).
Over the course of the poem, the speaker maintains a consistently whimsical tone, intensifying slightly when there is action (often by using more exclamation points, as in the fifth stanza). This consistency is partly bolstered by the poem's very regular rhyme scheme and meter. Overall, the speaker seems most like an enthusiastic and assertive storyteller, taking time to offer detailed descriptions of objects and events even if these come across as nonsensical to the reader.
-
-
“Jabberwocky” Setting
-
The setting of "Jabberwocky" is difficult to ascertain, though it appears to be a sort of fantastical land filled with mysterious creatures and heroic quests. There are several strange animals described in the first stanza , and we know that they are close to a wet hill. We can also assume that the hero navigates a forest or wooded area because he rests by a "Tumtum tree" and the Jabberwock appears from a "tulgey wood."
"Jabberwocky" relies on descriptions of figures and actions, however nonsensical they might seem, instead of devoting time to setting us in a particular location. Like the Jabberwock itself, the setting is left for readers to imagine in more detail. Yet because of the poem's traditional ballad form and familiar narrative, it's easy enough to envision the type of fantasy land or kingdom in which it might take place.
-
-
Literary and Historical Context of “Jabberwocky”
-
Literary Context
"Jabberwocky" originally appeared in Lewis Carroll's novel Through the Looking-Glass (the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland). Through the Looking-Glass is a whimsical children's book famously centered around the protagonist Alice's fantastical adventures in a world called Wonderland. It also includes Carroll's (almost equally absurd) poem "The Walrus and the Carpenter."
"Jabberwocky" is an example of Victorian "nonsense" verse. Broadly, nonsense literature is characterized by whimsical humor, eccentric characters, and the use of poetic elements that both facilitate and hinder meaning. Carroll, along with his contemporary Edward Lear, pioneered the nonsense genre in the mid-1800s. His mixtures of prose and poetry are conventionally structured but packed with wordplay, absurd characters, and logically impossible situations. Carroll often preferred words for their sound rather than their meaning, and while "Jabberwocky" uses the steady meter and rhyme scheme of a ballad, its story is extremely silly and random.
Historical Context
Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) wrote in mid-19th-century England, during the Victorian era (1837-1901). This was a time of rapidly accumulating wealth and economic progress, as a result of both the British Empire's colonial expansion and the Industrial Revolution. Population increased almost everywhere in the British Isles (except in Ireland during the Great Famine), and London became a booming metropolis. Conditions for the working class, however, remained awful. Many poorer people, including children, worked long hours in unsanitary factories and mines, which were often breeding grounds for infectious diseases.
Although literature thrived thanks to the general increase in wealth and population, much of it focused on the social problems connected to both, particularly income inequality and the widening gap between social classes. The idea that literature could include nonsensical humor was still a foreign concept to many people, yet it was in the realm of whimsy and laughter that Carroll thrived—perhaps partly in reaction to the struggles of the time.
-
-
More “Jabberwocky” Resources
-
External Resources
-
Lewis Carroll Biography and Works — The Academy of American Poets website, apart from being a premier resource for all things poetry, has information about Carroll's biography and notable works.
-
Nonsense Literature — This website, created by Carleton College, contains a solid overview of nonsense literature in the context of Carroll's "Alice" books.
-
Benedict Cumberbatch Reading "Jabberwocky" — A youtube video of British actor Benedict Cumberbatch's elegant reading of Carroll's poem.
-
Link to "The Hunting of the Snark" — This much longer poem by Lewis Carroll explains many of the odd words found in "Jabberwocky."
-
Illustration of the Jabberwock by John Tenniel — Although there are many depictions of Carroll's mysterious monster, John Tenniel's is perhaps the most iconic.
-
-
LitCharts on Other Poems by Lewis Carroll
-
