Nonsense

Nonsense

                    Means

                                                            to not make sense. 

Words can be fun, to use just for the sounds, or to make crazy ideas, for a laugh. 

reebs                                           snoodled                               screamsome 

squeshy                                         swirlwind                grasting           churdling


Not real words....but they are words......nonsense words. 

Perhaps the most famous nonsense words are those that make up the poem Jabberwocky by Lewis Carol (who wrote Alice in Wonderland)







Jabberwocky

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
      Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
      And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
      The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
      The frumious Bandersnatch!”

He took his vorpal sword in hand;
      Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree
      And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
      The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
      And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
      The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
      He went galumphing back.

“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
      Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
      He chortled in his joy.

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
      Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
      And the mome raths outgrabe.

Making up nonsense words can be difficult. This website will help. 



Hey Diddle Diddle is another famous nonsense rhyme, but this one is for babies. 



Antigonish 
by William Hughes Mearns (1899)

"As I was going up the stair
I met a man who wasn't there!
He wasn't there again today,
Oh how I wish he'd go away!"

When I came home last night at three,
The man was waiting there for me
But when I looked around the hall,
I couldn't see him there at all!
Go away, go away, don't you come back any more!
Go away, go away, and please don't slam the door...

Last night I saw upon the stair,
A little man who wasn't there,
He wasn't there again today
Oh, how I wish he'd go away...



Sometimes nonsense is only nonsense because it is about things that are not possible, but they seem possible because the way the words are used. The Owl and the Pussy Cat is an example:

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