In the novel, Alice finds the poem in a book but can only read it by holding the page up to a mirror. The character [[Humpty Dumpty]] explains the meaning of some words in the first [[stanza]] while Lewis Carroll enlarged the list of definitions in his later writings. While many of the words are either made up or are portmanteaux (two words combined together to make a new word<ref>e.g. Chortle - Defined by Humpty Dumpty as a combination of "chuckle" and "snort"</ref>) the structure of the poem is consistent with classical English poetry and has become popular throughout the English-speaking world. It has also been translated into many other languages, including [[Chinese]], [[Klingon]], [[American sign language]] and [[Esperanto]]. | In the novel, Alice finds the poem in a book but can only read it by holding the page up to a mirror. The character [[Humpty Dumpty]] explains the meaning of some words in the first [[stanza]] while Lewis Carroll enlarged the list of definitions in his later writings. While many of the words are either made up or are portmanteaux (two words combined together to make a new word<ref>e.g. Chortle - Defined by Humpty Dumpty as a combination of "chuckle" and "snort"</ref>) the structure of the poem is consistent with classical English poetry and has become popular throughout the English-speaking world. It has also been translated into many other languages, including [[Chinese]], [[Klingon]], [[American sign language]] and [[Esperanto]]. |