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In 1872 Lewis Carroll wrote Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There.  In chapter one you read

"There was a book lying near Alice on the table, and while she sat watching the White King (for she was still a little anxious about him, and had the ink all ready to throw over him, in case he fainted again), she turned over the leaves, to find some part that she could read, ` -- for it's all in some language I don't know,' she said to herself.

It was like this.

YKCOWREBBAJ

sevot yhtils eht dna ,gillirb sawT`
ebaw eht ni elbmig dna eryg diD
,sevogorob eht erew ysmim llA
.ebargtuo shtar emom eht dnA

She puzzled over this for some time, but at last a bright thought struck her. `Why, it's a Looking-glass book, of course! And if I hold it up to a glass, the words will all go the right way again."

Lewis Carroll used many nonsensical words in a poem called Jabberwocky. This is what Alice had to say after reading Jabberwocky.

"It seems very pretty,' she said when she had finished it, `but it's rather hard to understand!' (You see she didn't like to confess, ever to herself, that she couldn't make it out at all.) `Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas -- only I don't exactly know what they are!"

• Go to this website and read the poem "Jabberwocky" by Louis Carroll  http://www.jabberwocky.com/carroll/jabber/jabberwocky.html
  
• Cut and paste the poem into a Word document.
  
• Use the glossary below to decipher Jabberwocky.  Replace the word in the poem with an understandable word from the glossary.
  
• Write a short paragraph about what the poem is about.
  
• Print the poem and the paragraph and turn it in to your teacher.

• EXTRA!!  Write your own poem using nonsense words

Bryllyg (derived from the verb to bryl or broil). `The time of broiling dinner, i.e. the close of the afternoon'.
Slythy (compounded of slimy and lithe). `Smooth and active'.
Tove. A species of Badger. They had smooth white hair, long hind legs, and short horns like a stag. Lived chiefly on cheese.
Gyre. Verb (derived from gyaour or giaour, `a dog') `to scratch like a dog'.
Gymble (whence gimblet) to screw out holes in anything.
Wabe (derived from the verb to swab or soak) `the side of hill' (from its being soaked by the rain).
Mimsy (whence mimserable and miserable) `unhappy'.
Borogove. An extinct kind of Parrot. They had no wings, beaks turned up, and made their nests under sun-dials; lived on veal.
Mome (hence solemome, solemone, and solemn) `grave'.
Rath. A species of land turtle. Head erect, mouth like a shark, the front fore legs curved out so that the animal walked on its knees; smooth green body; lived on swallows and oysters.
Outgrabe -- past tense of the verb to outgribe (it is connected with the old verb to grike or shrike, from which are derived `shriek' and `creak') `squeaked'.