Essay on Nonsense Language in Carroll's Jabberwocky

In the first stanza, the speaker wants his beloved lady to observe a flea and not think of anything else as he delivers his argument. A flea bites the speaker and his beloved causing their blood to mix,

This is a rallying call of the leader to her troops. She uses energising imperatives to motivate them. One of the most effective uses of alliteration in the poem is the midge’s order to arrack human flesh, “the sweet flesh of face and forearm”. With Morgan’s use of ‘f’, one can hear and almost feel the midges suck on human blood. In the next few lines Morgan highlights how strong the maternal instinct is in the female midge, “Think of your eggs, what does the egg need? Blood, and Blood, Blood is hat the egg needs”. This reveals to the midge, survival is paramount and continuation of the species is everything. This is developed further by the patronising reference to the male midge as only being good for reproductive purposes, “our men have done their bit it, they’ve gone, it was all they were good for, poor dears”

From the quote on page 81, “But the stillness was the sleep of swords” (Hurston) this implies that the stillness between Janie and Jody represents how the conflict can still continue with silence, making the situation tense. The sleep of swords demonstrates there is some fight still going on, but is at rest. Simply put, it’s not a sign of peace between the two, but a sign of fighting that causes silence. The use of alliteration puts a primary focus on the letter “s”, the repetition of the "s" sound often illustrates a snake-like quality, which can imply slyness or danger. The emphasis on the letter “s” and word choices such as, “swords” or “stillness” creates a tone of restraint and provides a rhythm to the section. This helps the reader tune

In stanza four the poet is flashing back to his childhood and telling us some other words that he got in trouble for. “Other words that got me into trouble were fight and fright, wren and yarn.” (29-31) Even though he got in trouble by his teacher for not knowing the words, his mother helped him understand them in a different way. “Wren are small, plain birds.” (34) “My mother made birds out of yarn.” (37) Here he is shown how two different things can become the same thing.

The use of onomatopoeic devices and onomatopoeic words are abundant in this poem. For instance, “I say drop a mouse into a poem” is a line whereby the word “drop”, a very onomatopoeic word, effectively suggests that the reader of a poem must gently analyze a poem. This is portrayed through the gentle ‘p’ sound of the word and this is therefore effective as the reader gets a sense of the gentleness Billy Collins wishes his readers had when it comes to analyzing poetry.

In Geary Hobson’s poem “Deer Hunting”, very different types of diction are used. “Deer Hunting I” has a “redneck” and arrogant diction. “Deer Hunting II” has a peaceful and appreciative diction. Hobson uses contrasting dictions because he wants to emphasize that the way the men hunt in “Deer Hunting I” is disrespectful to nature. “Deer Hunting I” and “Deer Hunting II” are different and alike in several ways.

Repeated onomatopoeic terms again set the scene. We are told that a hunt is in progress, and it is described in descriptive detail. Anderson does not romanticise the scene as the duckling cowers from a ‘fearfully big dog’.

In the second stanza the distinctive experience of power is present. The use of the technique of imagery and emotive words “to pluck them from the shallows and bury them in burrows’ tells us that the soldiers were strong, loyal and had enough power within a degree to assist fellow soldiers. The use of personification to create sound “sob and clubbing of the gunfire” This leads the audience to understand what the soldiers were up against without even directly saying it. The imagery visually shows the scene in their

Tone- Jabberwocky appears to have a somewhat humorous tone, considering the nonsensical words used, the brevity of the story, and lack of moral. There is no issue or theme addressed that can be applied as an allegory, unlike The Lorax. However, the entire story of the Lorax is rather darker and more applicable in real life, and the tone is both a call to action for the readers and also rather accusatory towards large factories and companies. However, the Jabberwocky appears to have no clear accusations or calls to action and is a vivid contrast to the dark tone of The Lorax. The Jabberwocky poem’s tone is rather ironic, because it presents a usually serious topic (Defeating a vicious beast) with nonsensical baby words, which makes the author’s intent rather humorous. The quote below showcases an action scene with these nonsense words, which changes the tone from serious too rather humorous.

In the first stanza the pace is very slow and a painstaking rhythm. Owen decides to use long words to illustrates how painstaking and slow the war was. Owen describes how painful and miserable the trenches are by using; similes, alliteration, hyperbole and onomatopoeia this is a wide range of language use and fits in well with what is described in the first stanza.

causes the poem to flow, and thus lightens up the dark and serious issue of war. The lines "But ranged as infantry, And staring face to face, I shot at him as he at me, And killed him in his place." are easy to read; however, their meaning is extremely

4. The whole poem has an apostrophe. The Jabberwock is a metaphor for the despair of having to continually count meters and create rhyme. Since the despair cannot do that itself, Carroll created a personification by turning despair into the Jabberwock.

The poet in lines 5-6 cannot take his fatigued mind off the ‘deer’ as she continues to flee. “my wearied mind Draw from the deer, but as she fleeth afore,”. These lines signify his ‘obsession’ of possessing his prey. The use of the poetic term ‘consonance’, repetitions of non-vowel sounds, in line 6, “Draw from the deer” expresses the reoccurring longing desire and passion for the deer (woman). Another instance in which consonances are used, “as she fleeth afore, Fainting I follow. I leave off therefore”. In this line there is an unremitting repetition of the letter “F” which gives a great indication that the hunter is out of breath and exhausted. When she flees, it quotes, “fainting I follow”. He can only barely catch up to the wind that follows behind her, so he realises here that the chase is futile. He apprehends the fact that the deer is not welcoming his affection, which refers back to the theme of “unrequited love”. Wyatt in addition introduces a second ‘metaphor’, “wind” in which he uses to describe the woman. The “wind” symbolises agility, freedom and is impossible to capture. The first octave makes out that this was all a wasted hunt, and that the poet is officially unsuccessful.

This poem takes place in a make-believe world formulated in Carroll’s imagination. Going along with the fanciful setting are the fanciful words that the author created just for this poem. He uses portmanteaus to adjust adjectives to fit into his fantastical setting. His first portmanteau is “slithy” (line 1). This is a combination of “lithe” and “slimy”. He’s using this to describe the toves (a type of badger) and by creating this new word, it better fits into his make-believe world. The motions of your mouth and tongue when saying the word “slithy” simply feel the same as the word’s meaning; your tongue moves forward and back actively as “lithe” implies, while the “slimy” part comes with feeling that the word is smooth, it slips with your tongue as you say it. This adds to the poem’s sound because this single word adds texture and meaning to the poem. Another example of a portmanteau is “frumious” (line 8). A combination of fuming and furious, this special word gives a

The words that are paired together thought out the poem are composed of short sounds, such as “bring” and “wing” or “way” and “pray”. Since the rhymes occur at the end of each line they can be identified as masculine rhymes. Another way these words could be described as is hard and cold, for example the words “moor” are usually associated with a dreary landscape. In other instances where moors are involved in literature they are generally accompanied with chilly weather, hence its association with cold. Also “gore” is associated with horrific and harsh imagery that can make the reader uncomfortable and might send shivers up their spine. Whist not having a particularly sharp tone the words have a direct like manner that draws the reader’s