Beware of the Jabberwocky… and the traditional teachers.

This poem called “Jabberwocky” written by Lewis Carroll narrates the story of a young man who faced the monster called Jabberwocky, killed it, and returned home where he celebrated.
Particularly, it made me remind of what my Spanish teacher told me once. She said that English as a language was a cold set of structure that couldn’t be used to create good poetry. Whereas Spanish was the most romantic language, alive as a human heart, that allows the writers to create lots of resources to create whatever they want in different genres.
But the first time I read this poem, I realised how wrong she was. This “non-sense” piece of writing – as some authors have defined it – showed me that English permits the possibility of creating new words and new resources that are different ways of making poetry.
English is as alive as Spanish, but they’re different in many senses. It doesn’t mean that one of them is better than the other. We know differences are a treasure to be valued.
So, I suggest you read this poem bearing in mind what my teacher and some grammarian had said before, and try to see another face of English. Try to find out how wrong is the idea of considering a language better than others, and appreciate the resources you can gain from the different genres of literature in order to compare and contrast them. I strongly think I will help you in your classes.
Click HERE to read the poem and a glossary of terms.

Evan