| KIDS IN ACTION
By Kathleen M. Muldoon
And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
I was in sixth grade the day we studied Lewis Carroll’s poem “Jabberwocky” that first appeared as part of his novel, Through the Looking Glass. I fell in love with this silly poem and memorized the fourth stanza, above, which is my favorite part of the poem. I thought it was exceedingly cool that someone could not only write his own poetry but also make up his own language! I wanted to try to create a Jabberwock, and I soon got my chance.
“This is the dumbest assignment we ever had,” my friend Walter moaned as we walked home that Friday after school. “Whoever heard of a Jabberwock anyway?” His twin sister Mary Ann sighed. “That’s the whole point, Bozo. A Jabberwock is anything you want it to be. I see a kind of clumsy dragon.” “Then why not call it a clumsy dragon instead of a dumb word like Jabberwock?” Walter persisted.
Mary Ann and I tried to explain the concept of nonsense verse, which we’d just learned that day. Mrs. Cahill had told us that some words can be completely made up and that others might be “portmanteau,” blending parts of existing words that normally aren’t combined. For example, in the first and last stanzas of “Jabberwocky,” Carroll used “mimsy,” which he said was a combination of “miserable” and “flimsy.”
Walter was not impressed.
“What a pile of dogbage,” he said. “That’s a combination of doggie-doo and garbage.”
That weekend, I did my other homework in record time so I could spend most of Saturday and Sunday working on my nonsense poem. It wasn’t anywhere near as good as “Jabberwocky,” but I was proud of it. Before I share it with you, let me give you some steps to help you write your own nonsense verse.
- Read some nonsense verse. Besides Lewis Carroll, writers such as E.E. Cummings and Ogden Nash have written this type poem. Ask the librarian to help you find them.
- Think of a silly creature about which you can write a nonsense poem. Be sure to create a little story that your poem will tell, using your Jabberwock as the main character.
- Remember that nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs can be nonsense or portmanteau words. Nonsense poems should still be a recognizable form of poetry and include rhythm and rhyme. The fun part of writing nonsense verse is coming up with the worbots—I mean, the nonsense words.
- After you’ve written your nonsense poem, read it aloud, first to yourself and your cat, then to your friends and family. Hopefully, all will laugh (except your cat, who will just yawn), and each will have a different image of what your character is and what it’s doing.
All right, you’ve been waiting patiently. Here is the first stanza of my versomb—I mean, my poem.
The Felmonorse
From the forsture exprots the Felmonorse,
A frible sight, of course.
It pauses on the forsture edge
Then bolteaps o’er the hedge.
I’m sure you have been able to surmise that the Felmonorse has the head of a cat, the tail of a monkey, and the body of a horse. I’m also sure you’re thinking, “I can do a whole lot better than that!” Prove it. Write your own nonsense verse and, if you dare, share it with Action readers by e-mailing it to action@unitedspinal.org or mail it to:
KIDS IN ACTION
United Spinal Association
75-20 Astoria Boulevard
Jackson Heights, NY 11370-1177
If you use your computer’s word processing program to compose your nonsense verse, you’ll have the added amusement of driving its spell-check crazy!
Kathleen M. Muldoon is a children’s book author and writing instructor for the Institute of Children’s Literature. She lives in San Antonio, Texas.
