Lewis Carroll: Through the Looking Glass

CHAPTER 6: Humpty Dumpty (continued)

`And "THE WABE" is the grass-plot round a sun-dial, I suppose?' said Alice, surprised at her own ingenuity.

`Of course it is. It's called "WABE," you know, because it goes a long way before it, and a long way behind it--'

`And a long way beyond it on each side,' Alice added.

`Exactly so. Well, then, "MIMSY" is "flimsy and miserable" (there's another portmanteau for you). And a "BOROGOVE" is a thin shabby-looking bird with its feathers sticking out all round-- something like a live mop.'

`And then "MOME RATHS"?' said Alice. `I'm afraid I'm giving you a great deal of trouble.'

`Well, a "RATH" is a sort of green pig: but "MOME" I'm not certain about. I think it's short for "from home"--meaning that they'd lost their way, you know.'

`And what does "OUTGRABE" mean?'

`Well, "OUTGRABING" is something between bellowing and whistling, with a kind of sneeze in the middle: however, you'll hear it done, maybe--down in the wood yonder--and when you've once heard it you'll be QUITE content. Who's been repeating all that hard stuff to you?'

`I read it in a book,' said Alice. `But I had some poetry repeated to me, much easier than that, by--Tweedledee, I think it was.'

`As to poetry, you know,' said Humpty Dumpty, stretching out one of his great hands, `I can repeat poetry as well as other folk, if it comes to that--'

`Oh, it needn't come to that!' Alice hastily said, hoping to keep him from beginning.

`The piece I'm going to repeat,' he went on without noticing her remark,' was written entirely for your amusement.'