Nonsense verse
The first verse of Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" illustrates this nonsense technique, despite Humpty Dumpty's later clear explanation of some of the unclear words within it: 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.
Other nonsense verse uses muddled or ambiguous grammar as well as invented words, as in John Lennon's "The Faulty Bagnose": The Mungle pilgriffs far awoy Religeorge too thee worled.
Some nonsense verse simply presents contradictory or impossible scenarios in a matter-of-fact tone, like this example from Brian P. Cleary's Rainbow Soup: Adventures in Poetry (Millbrook Press, 2004): One tall midget reached up high, Touched the ground above the sky, Tied his loafers, licked his tongue, And told about the bee he stung.
Likewise, a poem sometimes attributed to Christopher Isherwood and first found in the anthology Poems Past and Present (Harold Dew, 1946 edition, J M Dent & Sons, Canada – attributed to "Anon") makes grammatical and semantic sense and yet lies so earnestly and absurdly that it qualifies as complete nonsense: The common cormorant or shag Lays eggs inside a paper bag The reason you will see no doubt It is to keep the lightning out But what these unobservant birds Have failed to notice is that herds Of wandering bears may come with buns And steal the bags to hold the crumbs.
More contemporary examples of nonsense verse include the Vogon poetry from Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and the 1972 song "Prisencolinensinainciusol" by Italian multi-talent Adriano Celentano.
Russian nonsense poets include Daniil Kharms and Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, particularly his work under the pseudonym Kozma Prutkov, and some French exponents are Charles Cros and Robert Desnos.
On Indian language Bengali Sukumar Roy is the pioneer of nonsense poems and is very famous for writing children's literature.
Auf seinen Nasen schreitet (wie schon gesagt) seitdem, von seinem Kind begleitet, einher das Nasobēm.
Die schärfsten Kritiker der Elche waren früher selber welche The sharpest critics of the elks used to be ones themselves Julio Cortázar, the Argentine writer, was famous for playing with language in several works.
