JABBERWOCKY

 
	'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.
					

 			     -----From "Looking-Glass House,"
		     Chapter one in Through the Looking Glass

• Brillig: four o'clock in the afternoon--the time when you begin broiling things for dinner. (Humpty Dumpty's explanation.)
• Slithy: lithe and slimy. 'Lithe is the same as 'active.' ...it's like a portmanteau--there are two meanings packed up into one word. (Humpty Dumpty's explanation.)
• Toves: something like badgers--they're something like lizards--and they are something like corkscrews...also they make their nests under sundials--also they live on cheese. (Humpty Dumpty's explanation.)
• Gyre: to go round and round like a gyroscope. (Humpty Dumpty's explanation.)
• Gimble: to make holes like a gimlet. (Humpty Dumpty's explanation.)
• Wabe: 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, with some "insight from Alice.)
• Mimsy: flimsy and miserable. (Humpty Dumpty's explanation.)

• Borogover: a thin shabby-looking bird with its feathers sticking out all round--something like a live mop. (Humpty Dumpty's explanation.)
• Mome raths: a rath is a sort of green pig: but 'mome' I'm not certain about. I think it's short for 'from home' -- meaning that they'd lost their way...
• Outgrabe: 'outgribing' is something between bellowing and whistling, with a kind of sneeze in the middle... (Humpty Dumpty's explanation.)