Thursday, October 9, 2014

I got rhythm- Jack Humphries

Jabberwocky

Carroll, Lewis. "Jabberwocky BY LEWIS CARROLL." Poetryfoundation. The Random House Book of Poetry for Children. Web. 7 Oct. 2014. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171647>.

 ’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.




Lewis Carroll’s timeless poem “Jabberwocky” uses a broken rhyme scheme throughout its 7 stanzas. Stanzas 1, 2, 4, and 7 utilize an a-b-a-b rhyme scheme while stanzas 3, 5, and 6 use an a-b-c-b rhyme scheme. Carroll’s primarily a-b-a-b rhyme scheme coupled with its iambic meter serves to paint the poem as a march. This March rhythm keeps the tone of Carroll’s somewhat ridiculous, non-senseical poem, serious and achieves Carroll’s end goal of a dark and ominous poem. Overall, Carroll’s a-b-a-b rhyme scheme helps make “Jabberwocky” into a march as well as it helps the essay flow better. In this a-b-a-b scheme, rhymes help expedite the reading of the poem. People begin to expect similar words that end the sentence and rhyme. As well a-b-a-b rhyme schemes show moments of importance when it’s broken.

1 comment:

  1. Firstly Jack, I love how you title all your posts. It's fantastic. But back to the real issue at hand here, the rhyme scheme. I think you picked an excellent poem to explain rhyme scheme, and you did a good job identifying the correct rhyme scheme. You also did a stellar job of talking about the tone and the meaning of the poem.

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