Editing Jabberwocky (section)

==Lexicon==
{{Quote box |align=right |
 |quote = <poem>
"'''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.
</poem>
 |salign=right|source =from ''[[Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There|Through the Looking-Glass, and<br />What Alice Found There]]'' (1871)}}
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|filename    = Jabberwocky-UK.ogg
|title       = "Jabberwocky" (UK English)
|description =
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Many of the words in the poem are playful [[nonce word]]s of Carroll's own invention, without intended explicit meaning. When [[Alice (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)|Alice]] has finished reading the poem she gives her impressions:

{{blockquote|"It seems very pretty," she said when she had finished it, "but it's rather hard to understand!" (You see she didn't like to confess, even to herself, that she couldn't make it out at all.) "Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas—only I don't exactly know what they are! However, somebody killed something: that's clear, at any rate."<ref name="AAW64">Carroll, Lewis (2010) ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass'' pp 64–65 Createspace ltd {{ISBN|1-4505-7761-X}}</ref>}}

This may reflect Carroll's intention for his readership; the poem is, after all, part of a dream. In later writings he discussed some of his lexicon, commenting that he did not know the specific meanings or sources of some of the words; the linguistic ambiguity and uncertainty throughout both the book and the poem may largely be the point.<ref name="Parsons"/>

In ''Through the Looking-Glass'', the character of [[Humpty Dumpty#In Through the Looking-Glass|Humpty Dumpty]], in response to Alice's request, explains to her the non-sense words from the first stanza of the poem, but Carroll's personal commentary on several of the words differ from Humpty Dumpty's. For example, following the poem, a "rath" is described by Humpty Dumpty as "a sort of green pig".<ref name="AAW96"/> Carroll's notes for the original in ''[[Mischmasch]]'' suggest a "rath" is "a species of Badger" that "lived chiefly on cheese" and had smooth white hair, long hind legs, and short horns like a stag.<ref name="Penguin"/> The appendices to certain ''Looking Glass'' editions state that the creature is "a species of land turtle" that lived on swallows and oysters.<ref name="Penguin"/> Later critics added their own interpretations of the lexicon, often without reference to Carroll's own contextual commentary. An extended analysis of the poem and Carroll's commentary is given in the book ''[[The Annotated Alice]]'' by [[Martin Gardner]].

In 1868 Carroll asked his publishers, [[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan]], "Have you any means, or can you find any, for printing a page or two in the next volume of Alice in reverse?" It may be that Carroll was wanting to print the whole poem in mirror writing. Macmillan responded that it would cost a great deal more to do, and this may have dissuaded him.<ref name="Penguin"/>

In the author's note to the Christmas 1896 edition of ''Through the Looking-Glass'' Carroll writes, "The new words, in the poem Jabberwocky, have given rise to some differences of opinion as to their pronunciation, so it may be well to give instructions on ''that'' point also. Pronounce 'slithy' as if it were the two words, 'sly, thee': make the 'g' ''hard'' in 'gyre' and 'gimble': and pronounce 'rath' to rhyme with 'bath'."<ref>Carroll, Lewis (2005) ''Through the Looking Glass''. Hayes Barton Press p. 4</ref>

In the Preface to ''[[The Hunting of the Snark]]'', Carroll wrote, "[Let] me take this opportunity of answering a question that has often been asked me, how to pronounce 'slithy toves'. The 'i' in 'slithy' is long, as in 'writhe', and 'toves' is pronounced so as to rhyme with 'groves'. Again, the first "o" in "borogoves" is pronounced like the 'o' in 'borrow'. I have heard people try to give it the sound of the 'o' in 'worry'. Such is Human Perversity."<ref name="HoS"/>