Through the Looking-Glass combines verse with prose. Two poems, in particular, have importance outside the context of the book. "Jabberwocky," that oft-quoted and memorized nonsense poem, is a mock-heroic ballad about a battle between a young man and a Jabberwock beast. The ballad form, the story line, and the use of some regular constructions provide a conventional framework for the poem. The invented and nonsensical words, however, provide the delight in the poem. Readers try to guess the meaning of the words by feel and association; with no conclusive meaning to the words, their meaning becomes whatever readers make it.

Almost as famous is the poem "The Walrus and the Carpenter" with its lines: " The time has come,' the Walrus said,/ To talk of many things:/ Of shoes—and ships—and sealing wax—/ Of cabbages—and kings—' " As the...