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The poem may originally have been a riddle, with the listener having to guess that Humpty Dumpty is an [[egg]], but there are many other theories about its origins and its meaning.<ref>''The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes'', edited by Iona and Peter Opie. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1951.</ref>

The poem may originally have been a riddle, with the listener having to guess that Humpty Dumpty is an [[egg]], but there are many other theories about its origins and its meaning.<ref>''The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes'', edited by Iona and Peter Opie. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1951.</ref>

Humpty Dumpty is also well known as a character in [[Lewis Carroll]]’s ''Through the Looking Glass'', where he explains the meaning of some of the invented words in the poem [[Jabberwocky]]. He also confuses Alice by using words with non-standard meanings, explaining ''“When I use a word, ... it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.”''<ref>''Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There'': [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/12 full text] at Project Gutenberg.</ref>:

Humpty Dumpty is also well known as a character in [[Lewis Carroll]]’s ''Through the Looking Glass'', where he explains the meaning of some of the invented words in the poem [[Jabberwocky]]. He also confuses Alice by using words with non-standard meanings, explaining ''“When I use a word, ... it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.”'':<ref>''Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There'': [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/12 full text] at Project Gutenberg.</ref>

:''“I don’t know what you mean by ‘glory,’&nbsp;” Alice said.

:''“I don’t know what you mean by ‘glory,’&nbsp;” Alice said.

:''Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. “Of course you don’t—till I tell you. I meant ‘there’s a nice knock-down argument for you!’

:''Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. “Of course you don’t—till I tell you. I meant ‘there’s a nice knock-down argument for you!’

:''“But ‘glory’ doesn’t mean ‘a nice knock-down argument’,” Alice objected.<br/>

:''“But ‘glory’ doesn’t mean ‘a nice knock-down argument’,” Alice objected.

:''“When ''I'' use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.”

:''“When ''I'' use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.”

:''“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you ''can'' make words mean so many different things.”

:''“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you ''can'' make words mean so many different things.”

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[[category:Poetry]]

[[Category:Poetry]]