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Claire Askew on 'Jabberwocky'

Lewis Carroll's 'Jabberwocky' is the first poem I ever remember hearing. When we were very young, my father used to read nonsense verse to my younger sister and I – poems by Ogden Nash, Hillaire Belloc, Edward Lear and Patrick Barrington – but 'Jabberwocky' was always our absolute favourite, and we'd always demand that he "do the scary voices".

When I got a little older, I was given a huge anthology of poetry for children, which naturally featured the poem. Now whenever I hear or read 'Jabberwocky' I am transported back to my childhood, sitting under my quilt till late into the night, armed with a torch and my well-worn poetry book.

And I've come to realise that it's not just me. So many people, of all ages and from all walks of life, equate this poem with their childhoods. I think that's because 'Jabberwocky' has something unique to offer to young readers – it is filled with weird, wonderful, onomatopoeic words which mean absolutely nothing out of context, but which somehow describe everything perfectly. The poem has a dark, creepy quality that's perfect for curious little minds; your imagination is left to paint the pictures - I mean, to a child, could anything sound more scary than a frumious Bandersnatch?!

To this day, I know the poem by heart, and particularly love the first (and last) stanza for its wonderful language and scene-setting. When I'm teaching creative writing, I often call upon 'Jabberwocky' to illustrate that nothing is ever too weird or nonsensical to include in a poem. It never fails to get a great response from my students... particularly when I do the scary voices.

About Claire Askew

Claire Askew, 22, is the Editor-in-Chief of Read This, a not-for-profit arts magazine which aims to promote the work of new, young and emerging writers. Claire’s own poetry has been featured in The Edinburgh Review, The Herald and Snakeskin, and in early 2008 she was awarded the Grierson Verse Prize, The Sloan Prize for Short Fiction in Lowland Scots Vernacular and the Lewis Edwards Award for Poetry.

Claire works part-time tutoring children aged 11- 18 in English, Creative Writing and Drama, and is soon to begin an MSc in Creative Writing at the University of Edinburgh. Her favourite activities include people-watching, reading Allen Ginsberg and talking in a geeky fashion about vinyl records.

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.

Lewis Carroll

Image: Empty slides at the beach © Claire Askew