Jabberwocky
by lewis
carroll
twas
brillig, and the slivy toves
did
gyre and gimble in the wabe
all
mimsy were the borogoves
and
the momerathes outgrabe.
He took
his vorpal sword in hand
long
time the manxome foe he sought
so rested
he by the tumtum tree
and
stood a while in thought.
and
as in uffish thought he stood
the
jabberwock with eyes of flame
can
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! oh frabjous day!
callouh!
callay!"
he chortled
in his joy.
twas
brillig and the slivy toves
did
gyre and gimble in the wabe
all
mimsy were the borogoves
"Be what you would seem to be - or, if you'd like it put more simply - never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise."
"Sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."
"Take care of the sense and the sounds will take care of themselves."
"The regular course was Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin with; and then the different branches of Arithmetic - Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision."
"The rule is, jam tomorrow and jam yesterday - but never jam today."
"While
the laughter of joy is in full harmony with our deeper life, the laughter
of amusement should be kept apart from it. The danger is too great of thus
learning to look at solemn things in a spirit of mockery, and to seek in
them opportunities for exercising wit."