9781422287149

9

The Purpose of Writing

some things in common with music, in that the sound plays an important role in the meaning and emotional power of the creative work.

A NONSENSE POEM A good example of the musicality of poetry is Lewis Carroll’s “The Jab- berwocky.” Carroll’s work is a nonsense poem—one in which the words themselves don’t quite make sense, but the arrangement of the words suggests a meaning that at least is very pretty to hear. Here are the first few lines:

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.

In this one stanza of his poem, Carroll has used two poetic techniques: rhyming (“toves” rhymes with “borogoves”) and alliteration (“gyre” and “gimble”).

Poet Lewis Carroll.