Comparison of the Kraken & Jabberwocky
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- Category: English: Poetic Works
- Date Submitted: 02/06/2014 11:50 AM
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Read Alfred Lord Tennyson’s ‘The Kraken’ (p. 139) and Lewis Carroll’s
‘Jabberwocky’ (pp. 135–6) in The Faber Book of Beasts. In no more than 600
words, compare and contrast the way the two poets represent their monsters.
Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky has some very prominent features, first and foremost, the frequent use of neologisms such as vorpal, galumphing and chortled. These create an aura of creativity that soaks the poem to its core, causing you to imagine these words, using the intrinsic images that come to your head to create a total image of the monster he is describing. This means that everyone will have a slightly different perception of what the Jabberwocky could look like, and it quite literally forces you to use your imagination.
However, the use of these neologisms and the general ‘nonsense poem’ styling of this downplay the threat of the Jabberwocky hugely; the whole poem feels very playful and as if it belongs in a children’s fairy tale, where there is no real threat of mortal danger from the monster. The lack of established adjectives seems to downplay the air of fear that should be attached to a mythical monster.
The emphasis in Carroll’s The Jabberwocky certainly appears to be emphasised much more heavily on the poem, the writing and the style of it. There is only a very brief description of the Jabberwocky itself, “beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that clutch!” (Jabberwocky, Lewis Carroll, Through The Looking Glass, 1872) and “The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, came whiffling through the tulgey wood, and burbled as it came!” being the only two stanzas that even hint at what the Jabberwocky looks like.
The Jabberwocky is also mentioned slain with apparent ease in the poem, there is no talk of a fearsome fight or even any resistance from the Jabberwocky aside from an intimidating presence: “The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead, and with its head he went galumphing back.”. If anything this...
‘Jabberwocky’ (pp. 135–6) in The Faber Book of Beasts. In no more than 600
words, compare and contrast the way the two poets represent their monsters.
Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky has some very prominent features, first and foremost, the frequent use of neologisms such as vorpal, galumphing and chortled. These create an aura of creativity that soaks the poem to its core, causing you to imagine these words, using the intrinsic images that come to your head to create a total image of the monster he is describing. This means that everyone will have a slightly different perception of what the Jabberwocky could look like, and it quite literally forces you to use your imagination.
However, the use of these neologisms and the general ‘nonsense poem’ styling of this downplay the threat of the Jabberwocky hugely; the whole poem feels very playful and as if it belongs in a children’s fairy tale, where there is no real threat of mortal danger from the monster. The lack of established adjectives seems to downplay the air of fear that should be attached to a mythical monster.
The emphasis in Carroll’s The Jabberwocky certainly appears to be emphasised much more heavily on the poem, the writing and the style of it. There is only a very brief description of the Jabberwocky itself, “beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that clutch!” (Jabberwocky, Lewis Carroll, Through The Looking Glass, 1872) and “The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, came whiffling through the tulgey wood, and burbled as it came!” being the only two stanzas that even hint at what the Jabberwocky looks like.
The Jabberwocky is also mentioned slain with apparent ease in the poem, there is no talk of a fearsome fight or even any resistance from the Jabberwocky aside from an intimidating presence: “The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead, and with its head he went galumphing back.”. If anything this...