’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

This stanza both opens and closes the poem (lines 1–4 and 25–28), and it sets the scene for the poem. However, the stanza contains many nonce words of Carroll’s own invention, making it difficult for the reader to grasp the lines’ full meaning. Readers of Through the Looking-Glass have the advantage of Humpty Dumpty’s explanation of the lines. For those not familiar with that book, the following paraphrase may help: “It was about four o’clock in the afternoon, and strange creatures known as ‘toves’ are spinning around, digging holes in the shadowed section of grass beneath a sundial. Shabby-looking birds called ‘borogoves’ were feeling flimsy and miserable, and the green, piglike ‘raths,’ which had gotten lost, bellowed and whistled.” Regardless of the specific meaning of these lines, the stanza as a whole conveys a sense of significance through its repetition at the poem’s end. The reprise of these words creates an impression of circularity and even timelessness, as if the events in the poem took place further back than historical memory can reach—way back in mythic time.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”

These lines (lines 5–8) make up the poem’s second stanza, where the father warns his son to watch out for various terrifying beasts. The stanza marks the first time the Jabberwock is mentioned. Aside from the later detail that this creature has “eyes of flame” (line 14), we know nothing more about the Jabberwock than what the boy’s father tells us here. That is, it’s a beast with “jaws that bite” and “claws that catch.” In addition to the Jabberwock, the father mentions two other creatures: “the Jubjub bird” and the “frumious Bandersnatch.” Although the boy doesn’t encounter either of these two monsters, Carroll could be making a veiled reference to the Anglo-Saxon epic, Beowulf. In that poem, the title character faces off against a trio of monstrous foes. Such a reference draws attention to the lineage of heroic narratives that “Jabberwocky” at once draws on and gently mocks.

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.

This quatrain is the fifth stanza (lines 17–20), and it narrates the entirety of the battle that plays out between the boy and the Jabberwock. In four short lines, the boy swings his sword, hacks his foe to death, and runs home carrying its decapitated head. Typically, heroic narratives build excitement and suspense by taking their time with recounting the details of a battle. In “Jabberwocky,” by contrast, the battle is comically condensed. Indeed, the combat seems to conclude almost as soon as it has begun. The stanza also features onomatopoeic words that add to the scene’s humor and underscore the poem’s mock-serious tone. The term onomatopoeia (AW-nuh-MAW-tuh-PEE-yuh) refers to words whose sound either resembles or suggests their meaning. In this stanza, the made-up words “snicker-snack” and “galumphing” both offer good examples of onomatopoeia. The first term, “snicker-snack,” seems to describe the quick swiping action of the boy’s vorpal sword as it hacks at the Jabberwock—and that’s just what the word sounds like. The second word, “galumphing,” sounds like a mixture of “gallop” and “triumph,” which you can hear in the one-two rhythm of the word’s triumphantly galloping cadence.