I was recently in a meeting with perhaps eight others when someone mentioned a phrase from Lewis Carroll’s nonsense poem called “Jabberwocky”. While the phrase brought knowing smiles to the faces of a few of the attendees, several had clearly never heard of it. Fortuntely for me, it was one of the poems that I’d “been forced” to memorize while in school, so the person who uttered the phrase and I, smart-alecks that we are, began a hearty rendition of the poem to those poor unfortunate souls who had yet to experience it. The other person rmembered the whole thing, while I joined him during the parts I still retained. It took no time at all before everyone was smiling.
Below is the wonderfully silly poem for those who have never heard of it, and for those who have I’ll bet most of you will appreciate seeing it again. I found it on Wikipdeia.com but it can also be found in some versions of Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There” (1872).
“Jabberwocky”
‘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.
Russ Towne's A Grateful Man 
Oh My Gosh! I cannot believe you were forced to memorize this in school! Luckily I have been able to select my favorites for memorizing, but this funny and obviously talented poem of whimsy is wonderful to learn about. Thank you for sharing it.
I’m glad you liked it, GinaV. Two other works I “was forced” to memorize and present in front of the whole class were Lincoln’s Gettysbugh Address and Percy Bysshe Shelley’s sonnet “Ozzymandias”. In hindsight, I’m grateful to have learned the Gettysburgh Address and Jabberwocky, but “Ozyzymandias” didn’t really stick inside my brain for long. For those who haven’t seen it yet, it is below. And no, I won’t recite it! ;-D! Once was more than enough!
Ozymandias
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desart. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
I found it on Wikipedia.com.
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That would be a hard one to memorize. I remember that I had to memorize a portion of “Annabel Lee” (Poe). 🙂
Thank you for your comment, Clip Snark. I looked up “Annabel Lee” and found several aspects of the backstory fascinating including that multiple women claiming to have been the inspiration for it and that it appears that even the author of “Lolita” used aspects of it including a variation on the name “Annabelle Leigh” for a key character in his story.