Jabberwocky

Jabberwocky is a fascinating poem that has captivated people for over a century. It explores the power of language and nonsense, and invites us to dive into a world of made-up words and imaginative definitions. The poem's structure follows traditional poetic forms while also breaking the rules, creating a push and pull between familiar and fantastical. Jabberwocky draws inspiration from nonsense verse and incorporates word nerdiness and Victorian-era vibes. The illustrations by John Tenniel add to the poem's appeal, and may have tapped into the Victorian fascination with dinosaurs. Despite its nonsensical nature, Jabberwocky continues to captivate and inspire, and some of the invented words have even become part of everyday language. The poem encourages us to embrace curiosity, creativity, and a playful approach to language. So Jabberwocky, right, it's like this poem that sounds like, you know, something you'd dream up after too much cheese, but people have been fascinated by it for over a century. What's the deal with all these crazy words? Why are we still so drawn to it? That's a question that takes us on a real trip, you know, a journey into language itself, how we get creative with it, and the surprising power of just plain nonsense. And we've got some pretty awesome guides for this deep dive. Wikipedia is here to give us the historical lowdown. And we've also got this super in-depth analysis with word definitions that would probably make the dictionary blush. Yeah, trying to unpack this poem, it's almost like cracking a secret code, you know. But the fun part is, this code, it might not even have one single solution, which I kind of love. Okay, so let's just dive right into the thick of it. The very first stanza, it just throws you right into Carol's made up word, Wonderland. "'Twas brillig, and the slidey toves did gyre and gimble in the wave." And it's wild, right? Even without a clue what a tove is or what gimbling looks like, the sounds themselves, they just grab you. Carol was so good at that, using language like music. Those vowel and consonant combos, they spark something in you, you know. It's totally true. You almost feel like, okay, I've got to invent a definition for this just so it makes sense in my head. And speaking of definitions, Carol did actually provide some of his own, right, our analysis thing. There's some real gems in there. Oh, yeah. Like, take slicey, for example. I mean, what a word, right? You can practically feel it wriggling around just from how it sounds. And Carol, he defined it as smooth and active, which when you think about it, it's kind of a weird combo, don't you think? It is. It's like smooth things are usually still, and active means moving, but slicey, it kind of manages to be both those things at the same time. Exactly. You got it. And that's the beautiful, playful contradiction thing. It gets even better when Humpty Dumpty shows up. Remember, in Through the Looking Glass, that guy, he's got opinions on words. He says slicey means live and slimy, which adds a whole other layer of sensory experience to the mix. So you've got Carol's definition, then Humpty Dumpty, who's basically the king of breaking word rules, and then you've got the actual Oxford English Dictionary trying to figure out how to fit this made-up word onto its serious pages. And that's the beauty of what Carol is doing, you know? Word, it came out of nowhere. He invented it. But it sparked so much imagination that even the dictionary people felt like they had to try and pin it down. It really makes you think, huh, if slicey can become a real word, a dictionary word, what does that say about how much power language has to actually shape how we see the world? It shows how human beings are, you know? We've got to name things, give them labels, even if those things only exist in our heads. And Carol, he takes that urge and he just runs with it. We get toves that are something like badgers, there's something like lizards, and on the whole, he writes, there's something like corkscrews. He mashes up the stuff we know with the totally bizarre, so we have to stop and ask, what even makes something a real word, a real definition, a real anything, really? It's like he's saying, hey, you want to play pretend with me? Come on into this nonsensical world. It's okay if things don't make perfect sense, just have fun with it. It's more than just making up cool words, though. Jabberwocky, it's a whole puzzle he's built and he's inviting us to play. A puzzle. I like it. But some of these lines, like gyre and gimbal in the wave, I mean, where do you even start to make sense of it? That's where you see how clever Carol really was. The words, yeah, they sound like gobbledygook, but the poem's structure, that's the opposite of nonsense. He's using old school poetic forms, quatrains, rhymes, even how many syllables are in a line, he's following the rules. It's like this hidden order under all the craziness. Oh, I see what you mean. He's playing by the rules and breaking them at the same time. Is that what makes it so unforgettable? Exactly. That push and pull between familiar and fantastical, yeah. We get the comfort of a ballad, like those old stories about heroes, but then bam, you're in a world where uffish thoughts exist and you need a vorpal sword. What even are those? Amazing. Speaking of fantastical, any idea where Carol even got these ideas from? Did he just make it all up or was he drawing on old stories, myths and stuff? Okay, so our Wikipedia article, it actually tells us about this. That first stanza, the one that started it all with the fly of the toves, he wrote that ages before through the looking glass, called it Stanza of Anglo-Saxon Poetry. Like a joke for his family, can you believe that? Wow. Interesting. It started as just messing around with language, sharing it with people he loved. Kind of sweet when you think about it, how something so weird could come from such a normal place. Totally. And it might go even deeper than just family stuff. Wikipedia also mentions the Lambton worm, this monster from English legends. Yeah. Could have been an inspiration. Plus, Carol was super into nonsense verse, which is this whole genre, whole type of poetry, all about being silly with words. Hold on. Got to admit, nonsense verse is new to me. What's that all about? Got to break it down for us non-poetry experts. Oh, it's the best. It's all about how F-U-N language is, so they use made-up words, situations that make no sense, rhymes just because they sound good. Total absurdity, but on purpose, like that. Did you ever read Edward Lear, The Owl and the Pussycat? Pure nonsense verse. Ah, okay. So Carol was kind of riffing on that tradition, but putting his own crazy spin on it. He took the nonsense verse recipe, added some extra word nerdiness, a bit of that Victorian era vibe, and then a whole lot of imagination, obviously. And out pops this masterpiece. Oh, and we can't forget, on top of all that, you've got John Tenniel's drawings. Those illustrations, they're inseparable from how we see the poem now. So true. Once you've seen Tenniel's Jabberwock, all jaws that bite and claws that catch, it's stuck in your head forever. Yeah. And they do more than just illustrate some smarty-pants academics. They think the drawings show how obsessed Victorians were with dinosaurs. That was when they were finding all those fossils and stuff, people were blown away by them. So the Jabberwock, it's like this scary, almost dinosaur-y creature. Maybe Carol and Tenniel were tapping into that, how people back then were starting to understand these ancient, extinct things. Man, I can only imagine what it was like to read this poem for the first time back then with those pictures, the words must have blown their minds. It's crazy, right? It's weird. This poem, it's got made-up words. Maybe it was inspired by a family inside joke, maybe by dinosaurs. And yet here we are, still totally sucked in by it. How'd Jabberwocky go from nonsense to a classic everybody loves? I think it's because deep down, no matter how old we are, we still have that little kid inside who loves to be surprised, who looks at the world and goes, whoa, what IF? And this poem, it just brings that out in people. Yeah, it's true. You can't read about a Bandersnatch and not start picturing it in your head, right? What does it look like? How does it move? It's practically writing the sequel in your own mind. And that's what makes it so special. It's not just Carol's story, it's your story, too. You get to create part of it and all that. The analyzing, the translations, people have even made music out of it, even movies. It's nuts. It's wild. Like, this one little poem, and it just keeps sparking all these new ideas, even after all this time. I wonder if Carol had any clue that this is what would happen, that he was starting something so big. Probably not. But get this, some of those words he invented, just for fun, they actually became real words. Like, you can find chortle and galumph in the dictionary now. Seriously. No way. So it's like, he just made these sounds, these combinations of letters, and they took on a life of their own. They escaped from the poem and became part of how we talk every day. Pretty cool, huh? Yeah. It shows you that sometimes the best way to be creative is to not get stuck on the rules, to not be afraid to try something totally new, even if it seems a little ridiculous at first. Who knows what you might discover? I love that. So what's the takeaway for all of us, then? We've gone deep on Jabberwocky, but how do we take that craziness, that fun with language, back into our own lives? Maybe it's about being a little more curious, a little braver about the stuff we don't understand right away, instead of going, that's nonsense. Maybe, ooh, what could that be? The world needs more of that, I think. I am here for it. All right, so as we wrap up our time with this awesome, bizarre poem, I'll leave you with this. What Jabberwocky will you create today? What crazy idea? What new way of looking at things? What word will you invent? Huh? Go on. Let that Carol-style playfulness loose. Thanks so much for hanging out with us as we went down this rabbit hole of language and imagination, everybody. Until next time, keep those brains curious and those vocabularies weird and wonderful.