“The Jabberwocky” makes no sense. And then so are Shakespeare's works. Both contain words and phrases created by the authors who wrote them. As for origin, “scraped,” first heard in Antony and Cleopatra, is no different from “slithy” or “gyre.” Emily Dickenson's "I Could Not Stop for Death" is every bit as illogical as Carroll's work. Both Dickenson's and Carroll's poems contain characters who, in literal form, do not exist in reality. One poem is as difficult to understand as another. The difference between the three poems above, however, is that two live in the world of logical, adult understanding. “The Jabberwocky” stands out because it thrives on childhood imagination. Carroll's works illustrate a solid understanding of nonsense. His stories and poems thrive in fantastical worlds of imagination. For this reason they thrive effortlessly even in the world of children. Carroll writes with the mind of a child. He understood that: “For young children, whose brains struggle to understand language, words are still magic; the magic of adults, absolutely mysterious; no child can distinguish between "real" words and nonsense or "unreal" words, and lines like [his] brilliant "Jabberwocky" have the effect of both arousing childhood anxiety (what do these terrifying words mean?) and to appease her (don't worry: you can decode the meaning based on the context). Lewis Carroll, in whom the child self dwelt throughout his celibate life, instinctively understood the child's propensity to laugh at the very things that arouse anxiety…” (Oates 9)As a young person, one hears this poem read to them, most likely with a fake Scottish accent, from parents. As the reader continues aloud, the young listener does not... in the middle of the paper... in this way, with this poem, the reader has the opportunity to grasp many things from the world of nonsense and come happily "gallumping back " (Carroll 734). Works CitedCarroll, Lewis. "The Ciciarampa." 1871. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. By XJ Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 12th ed. Boston: Pearson, 2013. 134. Print.Flescher, Jacqueline. "The Language of Nonsense in Alice." Yale University Press 43 (1969): 128-44. JSTOR. Network. November 13, 2013. .Oates, Joyce C. “First Loves: From “Jabberwocky” to “After Apple-Picking”” American Poetry Review 28.6 (1999): 9. JSTOR. Network. November 13, 2013. .Rundus, Raymond J. ""O Frabjous Day! ": Presentation of the poem." English Newspaper 56.7 (1967): 958-63. JSTOR. Network. November 13. 2013. .