Jabberwocky - the Bandersnatch and Nonsense Verse

Before the Addams Family and Green Acres, before Laugh-In and Saturday Night Live, before The Prisoner and Twin Peaks, before dada and surrealism, there were the works of Lewis Carroll. Nothing makes my heart soar more free than reading ALICE IN WONDERLAND. I suppose having the same first name tipped me off in the right direction early on, but I would've enjoyed Alice's adventures even if her name were different. I enjoy the absurdity of Lewis's work, obviously. Reading his work, his word experiments, the reader can imagine, if not feel the mental improvisations that worked within his mind to produce such prose and poetry. Just remember my friends, "nonsense" is not nothing and "absurdity" is not incomprehensible. Better than Ionesco's THE BALD SOPRANO, better than the verbal improvisations of a jazz soprano, better than the manic outbursts of Robin Williams, better only because it's more pure, the JABBERWOCKY is pure nonsense, "my son."

THE POEM

'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.

(I cannot read this poem without remembering the scene in INDIANA JONES when the swordsman approaches the hero and makes a big, threatening display of his prowess. However, Jones appears non-plussed and simply takes out his revolver and shoots him.)