Linguistics and poetics

Humpty Dumpty who explains to Alice the definitions of some of the words in "Jabberwocky".
Illustration by John Tenniel, 1871
Though the poem contains many nonsensical words, English syntax and poetic forms are observed,
such as the quatrain verses, the general ABAB rhyme scheme and the iambic meter.[29] Linguist
Peter Lucas believes the "nonsense" term is inaccurate. The poem relies on a distortion of sense
rather than "non-sense", allowing the reader to infer meaning and therefore engage with narrative
while lexical allusions swim under the surface of the poem.[10][30]
Marnie Parsons describes the work as a "semiotic catastrophe", arguing that the words create a
discernible narrative within the structure of the poem, though the reader cannot know what they
symbolise. She argues that Humpty tries, after the recitation, to "ground" the unruly multiplicities of
meaning with definitions, but cannot succeed as both the book and the poem are playgrounds for the
"carnivalised aspect of language". Parsons suggests that this is mirrored in the prosody of the poem:
in the tussle between the tetrameter in the first three lines of each stanza and trimeter in the last
lines, such that one undercuts the other and we are left off balance, like the poem's hero.[17]
Carroll wrote many poem parodies such as "Twinkle, twinkle little bat", "You Are Old, Father
William" and "How Doth the Little Crocodile?" Some have become generally better known than the
originals on which they are based, and this is certainly the case with "Jabberwocky".[10] The
poems' successes do not rely on any recognition or association of the poems that they parody. Lucas
suggests that the original poems provide a strong container but Carroll's works are famous precisely
because of their random, surreal quality.[10] Carroll's grave playfulness has been compared with
that of the poet Edward Lear; there are also parallels with the work of Gerard Manley Hopkins in
the frequent use of soundplay, alliteration, created-language and portmanteau. Both writers were
Carroll's contemporaries.[17]