Explication of "Jabberwocky"

In the seven-stanza poem “Jabberwocky,” Carroll tells the story of a fairy-tale, filled with beasts and bravery. He begins the poem as though the speaker knows voluminous descriptive details about the “Jabberwocky,” but as the reader we don’t know exactly what it is, or what it looks like. The poem itself might then be considered a disarray of words by the speaker in which he presents his description of a heroic action. Lewis Carroll, although using a jumble of words in his poem, never the less tells a suspenseful story with his use of diction, imagery, and themes that knit the poem together.

Because the poem concentrates on the speaker’s details about the creature, it is important to discuss what Carroll does with his specialized vocabulary throughout the poem. Carroll believed in enhancing meaning by combining words to take on the meaning that each word would have separately, a sonic device known as portmanteau. Combining the words “fuming” and “furious” to make the “..frumious Bandersnatch,” Carroll continues to use “home-made” words throughout the poem, mixing them with common words that tell the story of the “Jabberwock” beast. Although the reader doesn’t know what every word means, the reader does understand the sound that follow these specific words, thus creating a relationship between the sound and apparent meaning of the word that unite the story together and helps the reader understand the poem.

The first stanza of the poem starts out narrative but then alternates from narrative to a father speaking to his son in the second stanza. The “son” in the second stanza must go on a journey where he will encounter beasts his father admonish him about (lines 5-8). The reader immediately understands the task is not an easy one...

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... to the real world. The structure in which Carroll wrote the poem is remarkable; he was able to write a story with a major theme in a seven stanza quatrain form unlike a novel or other literary work. The chronological order in which the boy slays the “Jabberwocky” allows the form and structure to unite together and form an iambic tetrameter that alternate from tetrameter to trimeter, also known as Ballad Stanza stylistically. "Jabberwocky" is written specifically in quatrains four-line stanzas that have a regular ABAB, CDCD, EFEF rhyme scheme.

Lewis Carroll writes the poem as an enrapturing narrative poem that combines intelligent word use, vibrant imagery, and strong thematic views to create a highly enjoyable read. By the end of the poem, the reader understands exactly what the “Jabberwocky” is capable of doing but also what the small village boy can accomplish.