"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!"

This month we are reading a poetry book as part of our year-long genre studies. We started by listening to one of my all-time favorite poems, which I knew the Spirits would enjoy:

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 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.

Source: The Random House Book of Poetry for Children (1983)

We then had a lively class discussion about what some of these nonsense words might mean, with some very interesting ideas about the imagery (for example, what a "vorpal sword" might be -- a shiny sword, a super sharp sword, a special sword of coral formed under the ocean), what the overall poem is about (a quest, a boy fighting a monster, a dream or nightmare) and what the Jabberwocky might be (a dragon, a yeti, a monster, a wild bear). Here are our interpretations of what the burbling, fire-eyed Jabberwocky might look like:

I can't wait to read more poetry with the Spirits, to find what poems they love best, and to read and hear the poems they will write!