"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
He took his vorpal sword in hand:
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
One, two! One, two! And through and through
"And, hast though slain the Jabberwock?
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Try it in the Wall Street version, or in 29 languages as well as English spoofs at Jabberwocky Variations, edited by Keith Lim.
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!
Long time the manxome foe he sought---
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood a while in thought.
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
Oh frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll (a.k.a. Charles Dodgson) is generally considered to be the greatest of all nonsense poems in English. The idea came from his first chapter of Through the Looking-Glass, when Alice picks up a book with reversed printing and reads "Jabberwocky" by hold it up to the mirror she had just passed through.
