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“Jabberwocky” is composed in a verse form that is very close to what’s known as “ballad meter.” Ballad meter consists of four-line stanzas, where the first and third lines contain four accented syllables, and the second and fourth lines contain three accented syllables. The underlying meter for ballads is almost always iambic, so that lines 1 and 3 of each quatrain are written in iambic tetrameter (i.e., four iambic feet), and lines 2 and 4 are written in iambic trimeter (i.e., three iambic feet). Recall that an iamb is a foot with one unstressed and one stressed syllable, as in the word “to-day.” Although Carroll composed most of “Jabberwocky” in strict iambic rhythm, his stanza form only approximates traditional ballad meter. In most cases, the first three lines in each stanza have four accented beats, with the final line having three. For example (lines 13–16):

     And, as | in uf | -fish thought | he stood,
     The Jab- | ber-wock, | with eyes | of flame,
     Came whiff- | ling through | the tul- | gey wood,
     And bur- | bled as | it came! 

Carroll’s approximation of ballad meter relates closely to the poem’s subject matter. Since the Middle Ages, the British folk music tradition has frequently featured ballad meter in songs that recount memorable historical events and folk legends. As a poem about the heroic slaying of a monster, “Jabberwocky” could qualify as a folk legend that is worthy of being committed to memory. However, the speaker’s deviation from traditional ballad meter also signals the poem’s mock-serious tone, as if quietly confessing that the whole thing is just a silly fantasy after all.

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