"Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll

             JABBERWOCKY

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

    Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

All mimsy were the borogoves,

        And the mome raths outgrabe.

‘Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

    The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun

        The frumious Bandersnatch!’

He took his vorpal sword in hand:

    Long time the manxome foe he sought—

So rested he by the Tumtum tree,

        And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,

    The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,

Came 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!

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!’

        He chortled in his joy.

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

    Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

All mimsy were the borogoves,

        And the mome raths outgrabe.

Source of the text – Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass and what Alice found there.  London: The Folio Society, 1962, p. 15.

Bourguignomicon: Fuggin brillig! The most frabjous literary ballad ever glances at narrative and gimbles in doggerel rhyme, alliteration, and parallelism.