The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #111106   Message #2344077
Posted By: Rowan
19-May-08 - 12:00 AM
Thread Name: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
Meself has it, almost, although 'fumious bandersnatch' was 'frumious bandersnatch' the last time I looked.

According to Wackypedia;
"The Hunting of the Snark (An Agony in 8 Fits)" is a nonsense poem written by Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) in 1874, when he was 42 years old. It describes "with infinite humor the impossible voyage of an improbable crew to find an inconceivable creature".[1] It borrows occasionally from Carroll's short poem "Jabberwocky" in Through the Looking-Glass (especially the poem's creatures and portmanteau words), but it is a stand-alone work, first published in 1876 by Macmillan. The illustrations were by Henry Holiday.
In common with other Carroll works, the meaning of his poems has been queried and analysed in depth. One of the most comprehensive gatherings of information about the poem and its meaning is The Annotated Snark by Martin Gardner.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe... is the opening line. I'll let you make your own mind up whether slithy toves are "good" or "bad". Carroll's Preface has it that

"As this poem is to some extent connected with the lay of the Jabberwock, let me take this opportunity of answering a question that has often been asked me, how to pronounce "slithy toves." The "i" in "slithy" is long, as in "writhe"; and "toves" is pronounced so as to rhyme with "groves." Again, the first "o" in "borogoves" is pronounced like the "o" in "borrow." I have heard people try to give it the sound of the "o" in "worry. Such is Human Perversity."

Cheers, Rowan