Friday, 13 September 2013

A Lewis Carroll poem but in another register because homework

Carol: Oh, hello there dear, how was that... thing you were doing?

Lewis: You mean the Borogroves, dear?

Carol: I think so, are they the mimsy ones?

Lewis: Quite right! Yes, it was most bryllyg, but there was just one thing that I felt really held it back for me in terms of enjoyment...

Carol: Oh do tell, love, you know I would have been there if it weren't for the... the incident...

Lewis: Hush dear, let us not speak of that now on such a brembly day. Anyway, as I was saying, it was the slythy toves, you see. I know a good tove when I see one, but these were gyring and gimbling all over the wabe! It just simply won't do!

Carol: My, my, they don't brumel them like they used to you know. Just the other day I was renbling down to the local fariden when one glew right over me! Gave me the firght of my life, it did!

Lewis: Really? That's positively barmy! If that were me my mome raths would habe been in a total state of outgrabe! Not to mention the camlinfences!

Carol: Aye, these are troubled times indeed when a woman can't even herve to the nearby fariden without this kind of outlandish nonsense...

Lewis: Right you are, Car, right you are...




In case you didn't realize, this was the original four lines of the Jabberwocky poem made to look like it could potentially have been made of actual words when in fact it was mostly nonsensical gibberish. Here it is for comparison:

Twas bryllyg, and ye slythy toves
Did gyre and gymble in ye wabe:
All mimsy were ye borogoves;
And ye mome raths outgrabe.

I always quite liked it because it did at first fool me into thinking at first it was what I now know to be named 'frozen register', which it is actually not. Anyway, I decided to make it intimate to play with the idea that had these been real words in the English language (plus a few of my own made up words in the same vein) they would be used in conversation as if it was entirely normal. However, I added in lots of extra conversation filler to make it more accessible to those who are not completely insane, while making use of all Caroll's original gibberish and using some of my own where appropriate, allowing the reader to provide their own context and meaning to the situation. 

I had Carol refer to 'the incident' in order to further give the reader the sense that these two characters know each other well, and obviously they refer to each other with terms of affection such as 'dear', or perhaps more aimed at Bristolian readers, 'love'. Anyway I hope I did this right.





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