Jabberwocky

Fiction | Poem | Middle Grade | Published in 1871

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Poem Analysis

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Further Reading & Resources

Related Poems

“The Walrus and the Carpenter” by Lewis Carroll (1871)

This poem was published (as was “Jabberwocky”) as a part of Through the Looking Glass in 1871. It occurs in the fourth chapter, titled Tweedledum and Tweedledee, when the two brothers recite the poem to Alice. In the poem, a Walrus and a Carpenter are walking along the shore, lamenting the fact that there is so much sand, when they happen upon a bunch of oysters, which the Walrus then invites to join him and the Carpenter in their walk. The oysters do so, and the walk continues. But it turns out, Walrus’s invitation was a trick, as both the Walrus and the Carpenter eat all of the little oysters that had joined them on their walk.

“The Hunting of the Snark” by Lewis Carroll (1876)

Published in 1876, five years after the publication of “Jabberwocky,” this long Nonsense poem uses some of the neologisms, or words coined by Carroll, that first appeared in “Jabberwocky,” including “Bandersnatch,” “beamish,” “frumious,” “galumphing,” “jubjub,” “outgrabe,” and “uffish.” “The Hunting of the Snark” is the story of how 10 characters, the descriptions of which all begin with the letter “b” (a Bellman, a Boots, a Bonnet maker, a Barrister, a Broker, a Billiard-marker, a Banker, a Butcher, a Beaver, and a Baker), set out to hunt the Snark—a creature, it turns out, that may not be the Snark at all, but may be a dangerous and deadly Boojum instead.

“The Owl and the Pussycat” by Edward Lear (1871)

This 1871 poem, published the same year as “Jabberwocky,” is a Nonsense poem that tells the story of how the Owl and the Pussycat set out to sea, fell in love, landed in the land where the Bong-Tree grows, and with help from Piggy and Turkey, got married. It was written by an exact contemporary of Carroll’s, Edward Lear. Taken together, both Carroll and Lear were the best known and most loved Victorian writers of Nonsense verse or children’s verse, a reputation their work continues to enjoy to this day.

“Lewis Carroll in the Rabbit Hole” by Stephen Dunn (2001)

In this poem, the speaker laments the fact that were Charles Dodgson (a.k.a. Lewis Carroll, the author of “Jabberwocky”) alive today, were he a part of modern society, his (Dodgson’s) love of children, specifically young girls, would get him into a lot of trouble; that his affection for young girls may even be exacerbated by the Internet to a criminal degree. The speaker concludes that it is probably for the best that Dodgson be left in the past.

Further Literary Resources

“Through the Looking Glass: Alice’s Coming of Age” by Haley Coster (2016)

This article, published in 2016 in the CLA Journal, asserts that Alice’s story in Through the Looking Glass is a coming-of-age story. Specifically, it is a “bildungsroman” story, or a story that is part of a literary genre in which a naive protagonist sets of on a journey, during the course of which they mature as they gain experience of the world.

The Annotated Alice by Martin Gardiner (1960)

First published in 1960, The Annotated Alice is a companion reader that provides the full text and original illustrations of both Alice books, extensively annotated. The annotations are rich in detail, covering everything from a lengthy discussion of the chess game in Through the Looking Glass, to the various mathematical concepts found in the books, to readings of all of the poems in both books, as well as explanations of Victorian social mores a contemporary reader may be unfamiliar with. It is probably the single most cited reference work one will encounter while doing research on any topic related to the Alice books.

Bloom’s Modern Critical Interpretations Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Harold Bloom, ed. (2006)

Compiled by Harold Bloom in 2006, this collection of scholarly and critical essays is meant to be a comprehensive representation of the best work concerned with the Alice books up to 2006. It includes an introductory essay by Harold Bloom, 13 essays on a wide variety of topics associated with the Alice books (including “Jabberwocky”) by the leading scholars in the field, as well as a chronology of Charles Dodgson’s life.