My sophomore year of high school was truly a memorable one. My dance company performed "Alice in Wonderland", and guess what? I had the honor of being Alice. There was a hip hop group that performed a dance called the Jabberwocky. Little did I know at that time that it was actually a poem! As a little girl, I was absolutely in love with the book and movie "Alice in Wonderland". So, when I discovered this poem, I thought it would be super appropriate and incredibly fun, considering I had never read it before.
The Jabberwocky is about the villainous creature in the sequel novel of the Alice series, "Alice Through the Looking Glass". The context of the poem is quite interesting. Alice finds it, and on the page, it looks like utter nonsense. She realizes it is written backward, and even when she holds it up to a mirror, it still seems like a bunch of nonsense words. This poem is said to be one of the greatest nonsense poems of all time.
There are two great ways to integrate this poem. One way is within a unit on fiction, as "Alice in Wonderland" is extremely fictional. The other way is within a poetry unit, to show students that poems don't always have to be deep and philosophical. They can also be fun and a little bit silly. This poem was classified under "WOW" for me because of my love for the story of Alice and Wonderland and the whimsy that is so hard to find nowadays. It truly added a special touch to our dance performance.