ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND and THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS, by Lewis Carroll
I’m not even going to bother. Instead, I’m going to share my favorite of his poems. (One of two, at any rate. The other is both The Walrus and the Carpenter and far too long.)
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 outgrabe.
(This has been reproduced in its entirety on the internet in other places, so I’m assuming it’s okay. If it’s not, I’ll obviously pull it.)
I memorized this poem in high school because I thought it would impress the girls. Yeah, that’s how much of a geek I am. I still have the first stanza memorized, but the rest has slipped away.
Tell you what, it does impress the girls.
Well. Some girls.
You should be in the clear as far as copyright concerns go. Carroll died in 1898, and Alice In Wonderland was published in 1865, so it should be well in the public domain by now. Wikipedia says, “In the United States, all books and other works published before 1923 have expired copyrights and are in the public domain.”
It’s been a few years since I read AiW and TtLG, but I do remember both rather fondly.
It impresses the right girls.