Читать книгу English for Life Reader Grade 8 Home Language - Elaine Ridge - Страница 5
Оглавление| Pre-reading | |
| 1. | This poem comes from a fantasy called Alice through the looking glass. There are many words that you do not know in it. That is because Lewis Carroll is being playful and inventing words. This is a poem to enjoy! |
| During reading | |
| 2. | Although this poem is sometimes called “nonsense verse”, it has a clear story-line. See if you can work out what happens. Do not get stuck on the words you do not know. Use your imagination. Read the poem quickly aloud to yourself, using the punctuation and the words you do know to help you. Don’t expect it to make sense, it is intended to be just for fun. Enjoy the sound and the rhythm as you read. |
Jabberwocky
Lewis Carroll
‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
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;
And the mome raths outgrabe.
| Post-reading | |
| 3. | Describe the atmosphere of the first stanza. |
| 4. | The hero receives fatherly advice about the Jabberwock, the Jubjub Bird and the Bandersnatch. What is dangerous about each of them? |
| 5. | What kinds of movement are suggested by “whiffling” and by “galumphing”? Find other examples of onomatopoeia in the poem and say what they help you imagine. |
| 6. | Work out a possible meaning for: |
| a) | vorpal blade |
| b) | frabjous day |
| 7. | Choose the three coined (made-up) words you like the best and say why you like them. |
| 8. | The illustration gives us one interpretation of what the Jabberwock looked like. Do you think the drawing works or would you have drawn it in another way? |
| 9. | Now, use your imagination and describe one of the strange creatures that are referred to in this poem. |
