SOURCE: "Carroll's Jabberwocky," in Explicator, Vol. 46, No. 1, Fall 1987, pp. 27-31.

In the following excerpt, Alkalay-Gut analyses "Jabberwocky" and finds it structurally and thematically similar to heroic epics such as Beowulf.

An old professor of mine, warning against the dangers of overinterpretation, would illustrate the extent to which criticism could err by giving an extensive and detailed reading of "Mary Had A Little Lamb" as a religious allegory and "Hickory Dickory Dock" as a paradigm of the existential experience. Perhaps for this reason, I have resisted the temptation to try to understand what has made "Jabberwocky" so popular a poem, both with children and adults; but, its continued popularity continues to puzzle. After all, if it is only nonsense, what distinguishes "Jabberwocky" from any other nonsense verse, from an obscure modern poem, or from formless gibberish? And if it is purely nonsense, then why is it read? The decision...