SEEMANTI PAUL

ENROLMENT NUMBER: A91606117104

PROGRAMME: B.A. HONOURS – ENGLISH
COURSE: ENGL304, POPULAR FICTION
PROFESSOR: MOHONA CHATTERJEE
BATCH: 2017 – 2020
YEAR: 2
SEMESTER: 4
DATE OF SUBMISSION: APRIL 1, 2019

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A BRIEF LOOK AT EDWARD LEAR AND LEWIS CARROLL’S NONSENSE POETRY
AND ITS HISTORY STUDYING THROUGH THE OWL AND THE PUSSYCAT AND
‘JABBERWOCKY’ FROM THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS AND WHAT ALICE
FOUND THERE

Children’s Literature as a genre is rather specific but composes a multitude array of elements and
a history of its own that has been barely scratched beneath its surface. As the genre hints, this
form of literature caters to children but calling it an age-group specific literature would be doing
disservice to the genre – which will be discussed later as one of the motives of this paper to
explore.

In this paper, my aim is to focus on two of the most well-known and widely read children’s
poems Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll from the sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,
Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, and Edward Lear’s, The Owl and
The Pussycat. I will look into the nonsensical language used in both, discern their meaning, find
areas of similarities although the two are of extremely different nature. Of course, Carroll’s
Jabberwocky is evidently nonsense for its apparent lack of meaning but while The Owl and the
Pussycat feels like an easy and fun read, has far greater implication in its ordinary loose
structure. Nevertheless, a brief understanding of the history of Children literature will also be
discussed in the essay.

Children’s literature grew in the form of oral and didactic tradition giving a whimsical and
fantasy element to the narrative form in order to instruct, educate and entertain children. This
form of story-telling differs from culture to culture but its initial oral and didactic traditions with
fantasy and magical elements remain a commonality in major world cultures in the form of
folklores, fantasy, songs and fairy tales as documented by the Panchatantra authored by Vishnu
Sharma in 800 BC and Kathasaritsagara by Somadeva in the 11th century in the early Indian
traditions; the Aesop’s Fables by Aesop in 600 BC in Greek tradition heavily translated in
English later and the anonymous Arabian Nights around the 8th century AD.

Things began to change in the 17th century as the concept of childhood began to emerge as seen
through the earliest picture book for children, Orbis Pictus by the Czech writer John Amos

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Comenius was published in 1658 and the English writing of James Janeway, published in 1672,
one of the first books written specifically for children became the formative figure of much of
the 18th and 19th century writings for children.

Children Literature took its proper form and shape in the mid-nineteenth century during the
Victorian era which hasn’t changed much till the present day. This was a milestone achievement
for the genre and its ‘target’ audience because up until the 18th century, children were either
understood as not very different from adults who needed to be treated differently or little humans
who misbehaved, was naughty or beastlike, lacked understanding and hence, must be punished
or scolded accordingly. Little was known or realized about what the child felt or ‘understood,
misunderstood or lacked understanding of’ and why they behaved ‘not-like-adults’. The child
was given little or no space to grow up and their lack of understanding or trying to grasp
meaning of language and the world around them was incomprehensible even for the adult mind.
This ‘lack of understanding’ too began to change in the 17th century as was consolidated by the
emergence of a clearer, more distinct concept of childhood through the English philosopher,
John Locke’s theory of Tabular Rasa in 1690 in his work An Essay Concerning Human
Understanding. His theory states that the human mind is like a “blank slate” at the time of their
birth. The infant’s mind is not capable of processing data, understanding and lacks the
knowledge of everything at this time and data is added, stored, and rules for processing them are
learned through sensory experiences. An example would be: a child touching a hot bowl of soup
not knowing it should not be touched because it will cause pain and only after touching it does
the child learn that hot objects should be avoided. This was a breakthrough work in
understanding and accepting children and their behaviour which created a strong base for
Children Literature. In Europe, children were now being seen as separate human beings, innocent
and naïve and requiring protection and training from the adulty members around them.

In the 18th century writers initiating from Daniel Defoe and Jonathon Swift through the 19th
century works of Walter Scott, Charles Dickens, Jules Verne, Lewis Carroll, R.L. Stevenson,
Oscar Wilde, and Rudyard Kipling, challenged the age-old convention of the ‘in-built morality
fantasy norm’ and developed the literary genre without establishing morality learnings and codes
of conduct thus, re-establishing the sheer joy of childlike behaviour and actions, giving life to a

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new tradition of fantasy through transformation, anthropomorphisms, dreams, meaningless-
utterances, and a sense of humour and sensibility with child-like innocence.

While the genre developed an understanding of children, very few writers ventured an unfamiliar
territory which would not follow the traditional set of rules. In fact, it goes on to form its own
pattern, rhythm and style. This writing form evolved as Nonsense literature – which found a
perfect warm breeding ground to thrive in Children Literature for its usage of gibberish,
nonsensical writing, absurdity, anthropomorphisms and unreasoning.

To define Nonsense literature is a difficult task, but to makes sense out of Nonsense literary
form, it is a literary form that uses regular language and alphabets to balance a world of
understanding with somethings that make sense with some that do not. It uses a subversion of
language to create non-existing words that both fail logical reasoning as well as create new
meaning by destroying pre-existing ideas and reasonings. It is often understood as a literary form
that lacks meaning while the very ‘lack of meaning’ is caused by an effect of an ‘excess of
meaning’. Its humour lacks the traditional methods of creating comedy – wit, sarcasm, irony,
jokes and punchlines are all missing in this form. Rather, the lack of all these elements create
nonsense verse.

Its history and origin as mentioned before is still undetermined. Edward Lear (1812-1888) was
the first of his kind to write nonsense literature in his book, Book of Nonsense giving birth to
another style called ‘Limerick’ – usually a stanza of five lines carrying an anapaestic rhyming
scheme of AABBA – in which the first, second and fifth lines rhyme while the third and fourth
lines are shorter and different from the rhyme; however, all the lines end with stressed syllables.
This, evidently is the only formal original English poetry structure rather than having several
neighbouring European influences.

Although a substantial amount of Nonsense as a literary form can be traced in Shakespeare’s

works – The Tempest and Macbeth, the style was not developed further for effect or particularly,
for children.

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Following Edward Lear came the works of the next generation writer, Lewis Carroll, although,
neither have mentioned being aware of or being influenced by each other’s works. Nevertheless,
after much introspection into this mystery many scholars, starting with an anonymous reviewer
in the Spectator of 9 April 1887 have suggested that some of Lear’s later works may have been
influenced by Carroll such as Tis the Voice of the Lobster, Beautiful Soup with Carroll’s
Jabberwocky.

Interestingly, the mystery of Lear’s knowledge of Carroll was debunked in Vivien Noakes’
biography, Edward Lear: The Life of a Wanderer that he was indeed aware of Carroll’s Alice In
Wonderland. She writes, “At the end of August [1869, the letter is dated 25 Aug.] he received a
letter from Fortescue. “Have you read ‘Alice in Wonderland’?” it asked. “It is very pretty
nonsense.” In her footnote, she incisively mentions that “Lear’s own copy of Alice in
Wonderland is now in the USA”. Nothing is known about this copy or Lear’s reply to
Fortescue’s letter. Thus, it is difficult to claim or even trace how the two rivals may have
influenced one another or what Edward Lear thought about the younger writer who had mastered
the art of Nonsense that he had introduced in his Book of Nonsense twenty years before Carroll
had published his own works. Nevertheless, Lear’s eminent Book of Nonsense could not have
gone unnoticed by Carroll during his early years.

Lewis Carroll (1832-1898), pseudonym for Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, wrote Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland [1865] and Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found
There [1872], in the Victorian age yet their popularity never hasn’t dimmed down. Carroll had a
special way of understanding children and write in a queer language reflecting their thought
process. He had never quite been able to grow out his childhood and stammered while speaking
to adults. However, that wasn’t a problem for him with children – his speech was flowing, clear
and creative. A mathematician by profession his books are not mere fantasies but are precisely
logical when read with analysed further. Therefore, his writings were an entertainment source for
children and a complex analytical and logical ground for adults trying to decipher meaning out of
his Nonsense writings. Jabberwocky (it’s first stanza being pwritten and printed in 1855 way
before in the book in 1872) is one such great examples of Carroll’s Nonsense poetry and I will

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make an attempt to study the poem.

“Twas brilling, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe,”

The first stanza in the poem could be easily dismissed off as meaningless. Most of the word in
these four lines means nothing to us but Alice in Chapter I of Through the Looking Glass states,
“It seems very pretty……but it’s rather hard to understand……Somehow it seems to fill my
head with ideas –– only I don’t exactly know what they are! However, somebody killed
something: that’s clear, at any rate –––”. Carroll, on the other hand remarks, “You see she didn’t
like to confess, even to herself that she couldn’t make it out at all”.

It is clear that the poem is rather not comprehendible. One may have read the lines very
mindfully and still have never known what Carroll meant by the choice and usage of his words
had he not explained them through Humpty Dumpty later in Chapter IX when Alice comes
across him. It must also be noted that he had these four lines printed out reversed which too is a
clear indication of its difficultness in reading and the upside-down nature when meaning is lost!

On having a conversation with Humpty Dumpty on what words mean he claims “When I use a
word ……it means just what I choose it to mean –– neither more nor less”. To which Alice asks,
“…whether you can make words mean so many different things.” And Humpty Dumpty
remarks, “The question is……which is to be master –– that’s all.” It seems, Carroll is himself
speaking through the character of Humpty Dumpty – rather scornful but speaks words of
wisdom. So, Carroll gives meaning to the words of his own creation through Humpty Dumpty
and as we see here, the words may mean only what Carroll decided for them to mean or on the
other hand, they could mean anything to anyone reading it. These few lines from the
conversational exchange between Alice and Humpty Dumpty is where the ground-breaking yet-
to-come Post-Structuralism philosophy is deep-seated. It is as if Carroll is claiming to read and

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write against the grain, giving and making meaning as he chooses to and offering his readers to
do the same.

Humpty Dumpty on having Alice recited the poem for him stops her, remarking, “That’s enough
to begin with…there are plenty of hard words there, ‘Brillig’ means four o’clock in the afternoon
–– the time when you begin broiling things for dinner.” He further interprets: “‘slithy’ means
‘lithe and slimy’, ‘Lithe’ is the same as ‘active’.” He adds, “You see it’s like portmanteau ––
there are two meanings packed up in one word”. (So, when looked deeper, ‘slithy’ may be the
combination of the ‘lith’ from ‘lithe’ and ‘y’ from ‘slimy’.) ‘Toves’ is interpreted as “something
like badgers –– they’re something like lizards –– and they’re something like corkscrews.” ‘Gyre’
and ‘gimble’ are “to go round and round like gyroscope” and “to make holes in a gimblet”
respectively. ‘Wabe’ is decoded by Alice as “the grass-plot round a sound-dial” to her own
surprise to which Humpty Dumpty adds, “It’s called ‘wabe’, you know, because it goes a long
way before it, and a long way behind it” and Alice interprets it further saying, “And a long way
beyond it on each side”.

The decoding carries on as ‘mimsy’ is “’flimsy and miserable’ (another portmanteau) and
‘borogove’ is “a thing shabby-looking bird with its feathers sticking out all around –– something
like a mop.” Alice reflects that she must be giving her interpreter a “great deal of trouble” but
asks for the meaning of ‘mome raths’. Humpty Dumpty unfortunately is unable to decode what
‘mome’ means but suggests it could be short for “from home” and that ‘rath; means “a sort of
green pig”. Now, ‘outgrabe’ is interpreted as “something between bellowing and whistling, with
a kind of sneeze in the middle…”. That is all the interpretation Carroll leaves us with, the rest of
the job to be done by us. Nevertheless, the interpretation of the first stanza leaves us with some
understanding of what the poem, Jabberwocky, could mean.

The poem thus, tells us that in a land filled with fascinating imaginary creatures like ‘borogoves’
and ‘Jubjub’ birds, a man warns his son to be beware of one of those unknown wild creatures
called the ‘Jabberwock’. Disregarding his father’s words, the son goes on a mission to the forest,
armed, to kill the winged beast. On his search, he grows tired and rest beneath a ‘Tutum’ tree
when the feral animal with his eyes flaming attacks the young man. He successfully fights and
kills the ‘Jabberwock’ – “One, two! One, two! And through and through/The vorpal blade went
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snicker-snack!” He leaves the creature dead and leaves with his head for the village with proof.
The villagers cheer him on and celebrate in joy on his return. His father, who didn’t believe his
son could even go near the wild creature is proud and exclaims, “Come to my arms, my beamish
boy!” and rejoices in his son’s victory. The last stanza then ends repeating its first making the
readers wonder, what happened or, if the event even occurred at all! Thus, taking the readers
back to where it had all begun.

Several other of Carroll’s made up words have been interpreted by the Oxford’s English
Dictionary but in a letter to a child friend Carroll wrote: ‘I’m afraid I can’t explain “vorpal
blade” for you –– nor yet “tulgey wood”’ (18 December 1877, Letters, vol. I. p 293 – Penguin
Classics, Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, Notes to Through
the Looking-Glass, pg. 332, 1998). In the same letter Carrol explained: ‘if you take the three
verbs “bleat”, “murmur”, and “warble”, and select the bits I have underlined, it certainly makes
“burble”; though I’m afraid I can’t distinctly remember having made it in that way’.

However, the poem is an observation of how children are expected to behave, be scared of
situations adults believe is dangerous and do not value the child’s judgement or their ability to
act appropriately. Thus, as the father in the poem advices his son to keep away for the
‘Jabberwock’, the son takes up a challenge believing in himself and outdoing his father’s
expectation emerging victorious. The other meaning of the poem lies in victory of good over evil
as the son kills the monstrous bird. However, the concept of good vs. evil is subjective and the
Jabberwock may have just looked ugly and dangerous (individual perspective) and have been of
no harm or evil. The poem also posits social hierarchal structures – humans are ‘superior beings’
and will destroy anything that may jeopardise their safety thus, when the son comes back with
the ‘Jabberwock’s’ head, it is a trophy to the villagers – a symbol of their win over the inferior
beasts – hinting at Post-Colonial interpretations of the colonizers trying to show their victory
over their inferior colonized cultures as they believed. Henceforth, as the poem ends repeating
the first stanza, we wonder whether the son won at all and whether the Jabberwock is still out
there, never being killed. Or, if the killed beast, the inferior ugly being, will return to avenge with
double the threat.

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Carroll leaves every bit of the interpretation to his readers making a true Post-Structuralist and
Post-Colonialist mark although the philosophical thoughts emerged much later. The author does
not define the text: he only gives us a clear picture of the events Alice goes through to help his
readers analyse the material for themselves and unravel its mysteries never quite understanding
Carroll’s own point.

Much the same way Edward Lear wrote his poetry although his poems are easier to discern. His
language was more fluid using few words out of his own imagination, such as the words
“runcible” and “Bong-Tree” in the poem, The Owl and the Pussycat, did not exist in the British
English language before and he coined these words for this poem adding to its nonsensical
theme.

Lear uniquely blended events in his poetry that have left his adult readers bewildered. What did
he mean by The Owl and the Pussycat? Why were they out in the sea? Can an owl and pussycat
fall in love or even speak each other’s language? Why did they carry “some honey” and how did
they have “plenty of money” that too, “wrapped in a five-pound note”? Why did they sail “To
the land where the Bong-Tree grows”? All of this, again, remains a mystery. However, one thing
is for sure, Lear’s poems offered a refreshing style, form and narrative than what children read
before him – didactic, moralistic and saving-the-soul poems that were meant as preventive
measure for children from growing up morale-less and irreligious.

In the poem, we see the couple return their love for each other and express their love too:

““O lovely Pussy! O Pussy, my love,

What a beautiful Pussy you are,
You are,
You are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are!””

…….

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 “Pussy said to the Owl, “You elegant fowl!
How charmingly sweet you sing!
O let us be married! Too long we have tarried:
But what shall we do for a ring?””

From the poem we can say that the two aren’t alike. Just like humans have inhibitions marrying
outside their own kind the couple in the poem may have faced trouble within their community
not finding acceptance of their love. Thus, they may have eloped for that very reason – to be
happy together. Their love for each other shows that love knows no boundaries and no variation
in kind, creed, colour, race, etc. If two beings love each other, they will find a way to make it
work. The poem is therefore, a deep reflection of the society humans exists in, and our
intolerance towards one another. The poem is simple in its message, suggesting children to be
happy and to be with those who they love irrespective of any differences. The poem is also
progressive for its time, Lear finds no need of mentioning the genders of the Owl and the
Pussycat, once again, leaving his readers wondering and interpreting it as they like. However, in
the little-known sequel to this poem, The Children of the Owl and the Pussycat, their genders
are revealed as it begins “Our mother was the Pussy-cat, our father was the Owl” suggesting the
Pussycat is female and the Owl male.

The poem features andromorphic animals, as the owl and the pussycat can talk and sing, the pig
engages in their transaction to buy a ring for their wedding and the turkey officiates their
wedding. The poem is rather rich in its rhyming scheme and unique genre being one of the first
of its kind.

Both Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear have one thing in common: through their nonsensical
verses they have critiqued the established norms of the Victorian era and destroyed them too.
Their languages were a form of subversion of the Victorian mores and a breath of fresh air
challenging the continued writings of the same old nature. It is difficult to determine points of
commonality in their structure and albeit because of their age gap and little found evidences it
can be concluded that Carroll may have been influence by Lear’s nonsensical style – Lear’s
particular style of poetry has no resemblance with Carroll’s own style. Both the writers have
used the narrative form to cater to children yet speaking to the volumes of adults who found their
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own mysteries and questions reflected on through their nonsensical use of language. Still
fantastical and whimsical in nature, they offer a twist of interpretation for adults to enjoy, relate
with, and study profoundly.

Both the poems can be interpreted further discussing their technicalities but because of the
limitations of the paper I remain constrained to discuss their meanings only. Nevertheless, their
rhyming patterns, lyrical modes are an enriching field to be analysed separately.

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SOURCES CITED:
Carroll, Lewis. Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There. Penguin Classics.
Chapter I, pg. 132, Chapter XI, pgs. 186-189, Notes, pg. 332

“List of Children's Classic Books.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 17 Feb. 2019,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_children's_classic_books#cite_note-5.
“Children's Literature.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Mar. 2019,
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children's_literature.
“Lewis Carroll on Edward Lear.” A Blog of Bosh, 18 June 2007,
nonsenselit.com/2007/06/18/lewis-carroll-on-edward-lear/.
Palma-McGuire, Team. “Jabberwocky: Post-Structuralism and Deconstruction.” Prezi.com, 19
Oct. 2014, prezi.com/t7op92dptjy7/jabberwocky-post-structuralism-and-deconstruction/.
Lemaire, Danielle. “Analysis of ‘Jabberwocky’ by Lewis Carroll through the Lens o.” Prezi.com,
25 Mar. 2014, prezi.com/014fhekiwffb/analysis-of-jabberwocky-by-lewis-caroll-through-the-
lens-o/.
Lear, Edward. “The Owl and the Pussy-Cat by Edward Lear.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry
Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43188/the-owl-and-the-pussy-cat.
“The Children of the Owl and the Pussy-Cat.” Interesting Literature, 4 Mar. 2016,
interestingliterature.com/2016/03/04/the-children-of-the-owl-and-the-pussy-cat/.
“A Short Analysis of Edward Lear's 'The Owl and the Pussycat'.” Interesting Literature, 20 July
2018, interestingliterature.com/2016/12/22/a-short-analysis-of-edward-lears-the-owl-and-the-
pussycat/.
“A Short Analysis of 'Jabberwocky' by Lewis Carroll.” Interesting Literature, 22 Dec. 2016,
interestingliterature.com/2016/01/22/a-short-analysis-of-jabberwocky-by-lewis-carroll/.

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