Jabberwocky

​Through the Looking Glass by Louis Carroll features the poem "Jabberwocky." Students may know the name as a fairly popular dance group of the same name. The poem is considered a masterpiece of nonsense poetry. Youtube has several readings and songs of the poem like This one. This is another really good reading of the poem as well. The poem tells the story of battle between a monster and hero, but the language is so unusual it can be interpreted in many ways which lends itself to exploration in an art class.

We read through the poem and in the margins, write our interpretations of what's going on. The first and last stanza are the same and the most obtuse. I ask, "what should the first part of a poem or a story do?" The answer is to "set a tone or sense of place" to the story. I explain that Louis Carroll would often combine words to create new and more descriptive words. We do this in art with our elements and principles, like combining line and pattern to make a more expressive image.

Here's that first stanza:
 
‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

I write some of the words on our board and have students chime in about what the words might mean, with the understanding that there is no "right" answer. Here is one list we compiled.

Brillig = Bright and Big?
Slithy = Slimy and Lithe? (lithe is thin, supple, and graceful)
Gyre and gimble, sounds like a back and forth motion, but gyre is a real word related to circles.
Wabe = Water and glade? In an interview Carroll described it as wet grass on a hillside.
Mimsy = sounds like a "cute-ish" word
Borogoves = Burrow (Rabbit hole) and a Grove, a forested area?
Mome Raths Outgrabe = Creatures moving outward?
 
Some real vocabulary from the poem can be pulled out for additional depth and connections to English here.

​Wikipedia includes interpretations for the more odd vocabulary based on cross referencing Carroll's other poetry.

​Once the first stanza is done, the story begins. As we encounter words, we write about what they might mean. This time I ask students to do it individually which can help ensure diverse interpretations. I do however pull out descriptive words for the Jabberwocky so we get an idea of what it might look like. I purposefully DO NOT show known illustrations because they can influence students into copying. What we do know is that the monster has impressive jaws and claws, as they are the first things mentioned. It also has "eyes of flame;" that could be red eyes, or perhaps real fire or lasers coming from the eyes.
 
After a first read-through I point out a few ideas to students.
 
#1. In the original book, Alice is illustrated as the one with the sword who kills the monster, so though the poem says "son," your interpretation could be of a boy or girl.
#2. Some have interpreted the missing mother indicated that she may have been killed by the monster, and the son is young warrior going to save his community.
#3. The poem could be interpreted as a the adventure of a small child with a stick. Maybe the monster is just a squirrel or tree stump, and it's all in his/her imagination.
#4. The capitalization of "the Tumtum tree" is important. If it was an oak tree, there would be no need to capitalize it, because there are many oak trees. But because Tumtum is capitalized, it must be a unique tree in all the world. Be sure if you illustrate it that it is somehow unique.

​With these things established, there are many directions one can go. If you include the idea of a title page, plus one page for each stanza, students could create a small book of the poem with illustrations. 8 is an easy number of pages to make and not too overwhelming. They could even sew them together for a unit in book making.
 
I decided to break up the poem and have students illustrate one stanza so we could display the whole poem to the school. I have done this in many ways, but an easy one is to put stanza numbers in a box and have students randomly pick. I allow them to trade if they like. Some students feel disappointed if they get the first or last stanza until I remind them that it is so open to interpretation they can almost do anything and it will work. In a class of 21, I can display 3 versions of the poem in different locations around the school.
 
I also require that the text be integrated into the work, not a small block of text set to the side as an afterthought. The Book of Kells can be a good tie in for text and illustration integration. Alternately you could display the stanza below or next to the works. Do what works for your situation. Perhaps they can be displayed in your school library.

​I have done this project many times with different media. In this example, we used painted papers as collage elements to make our illustrations, but I have done this in other ways as well:

• Single, continuous line illustrations (Sample below)
• Collage that became the basis/sketch for a grid painting.
• Puppet characters so that the poem could be performed
• Mini illustrated books as I described above
• Jabberwocky monster or action hero figure sculptures.
• Blown ink and watercolor abstract images

 
Whatever you decide, base it on what you have available, and be sure to exhibit the results for the rest of your community to see.

Continuous line illustration; Sharpie pen and acrylin on canvas.

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Here's the whole poem in case you want to copy and paste it. 

Jabberwocky By Lewis Carroll, 1864

​’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.