Using Context Clues with Nonsense Words in “Jabberwocky”

(from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There,
1872)

JABBERWOCKY by Lewis Carroll

`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, has 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 outgrab

►►Step 1: Go through the entire poem and underline or highlight the

vocabulary words that you see in the chart. This will make it easier to identify
them as you answer the questions. A context clue helps the reader to infer or
understand the definition of a word based on the information in the sentence.

A weak context clue sentence: “The directions were nebulous.” Nebulous could
mean a number of things: “excellent”, “clear”, “lengthy”, or “comical” if a
person isn’t familiar with the term. Notice that there are NO clues in the
sentence that reveal information helpful information to the reader.
A strong context clue sentence: “There was no way I could do the assignment
because the directions were so nebulous;

Miss Omar had not given us a topic, due date, or any verbal instructions.”

** So based on the context clues in the strong sentence, nebulous probably

means? ______________________

►►Step 2: Complete the chart by determining how each nonsense word is

contextually and grammatically used in the poem – then list the part of speech
and possible definition. Be creative and we will go over the results, there are
lots of possibilities

JABBERWOCKY – IS IT ALL A BUNCH OF NONSENSE?

Nonsense Word Part of Speech Context Clue Definition(just guess

creatively)
brillig adjective or noun brilliant + shindig (festive, informal party)

slithy adjective Slithering +slimy (snake connotation)

1 Toves

2 gimble

3 wabe

4 Mimsy

5 Borogoves

6 raths

7 outgrabe

8 Jabberwock

9 frumious
10 Bandersnatch

11 vorpal

12 Snicker-snack

13 manxome

14 uffish

15 wiffling

16 tulgey

17 galumphing

18 frabjous

19 callooh

20 callay

*Noun ● Verb ● Adjective ● Adverb ● Pronoun ● Preposition ● Conjunction ● Interjec tion