» `Twas brillig, and the slithy toves


   Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: » All mimsy were the borogoves,


   And the mome raths outgrabe. ... illustrates this nonsense technique perfectly, despite Humpty Dumpty's later explanation of some of the unclear words within it.
   Still 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. » Sam fells on the waysock-side


   And somforbe on a gurled, » With all her faulty bagnose!

Here, awoy fills the place of "away" in the expression "far away", but also suggests the exclamation "ahoy", suitable to a voyage (or pilgriffage?). Likewise, worled and gurled suggest "world" and "girl" but have the -ed form of a past-tense verb. Somforbe resists interpretation -- possibly a noun; possibly a slurred verb phrase.
   However not all nonsense verse relies on word play. Some conjures up nonsensical situations, for instance Edward Lear's poem, The Jumblies has a perfectly comprehensible chorus. » Far and few, far and few,


   Are the lands where the Jumblies live; » Their heads are green, and their hands are blue


   And they went to sea in a sieve. The significance of the colour of their heads and hands isn't apparent and the verse appears to be nonsense.
   Likewise Christopher Isherwood's poem ...

» The common cormorant or shag


   Lays eggs inside a paper bag » The reason you'll see no doubt


   It is to keep the lightning out » But what these unobservant birds


   Have never noticed is that herds » Of wandering bears may come with buns


   And steal the bags to hold the crumbs. from 'Poems Past and Present', J.M. Dent and Sons (Canada) Ltd. fourth printing, 1959
   ... makes grammatical and semantic sense and yet lies so earnestly and absurdly that it qualifies as complete nonsense.
   There is a long tradition of nonsense verse in English. The Anglo-Saxon riddles are an early form. For instance ...

» The creature ate its words -- it seemed to me


   strangely weird -- when I heard this wonder: » that it had devoured -- the song of a man.


   A thief in the thickness of night -- gloriously mouthed » the source of knowledge -- but the thief was not


   the least bit wiser -- for the words in his mouth. (Answer: probably a bookworm) The poem is nonsense until one figures out the answer.
   The poem ...

» One fine day in the middle of the night,


   Two dead boys got up to fight. » Back-to-back they faced each other,


   Drew their swords and shot each other. » One was blind and the other couldn't see,


   So they chose a dummy for a referee. » A blind man went to see fair play,


   A dumb man went to shout "hooray!" » A deaf policeman heard the noise,


   And rushed to save the two dead boys. » A paralyzed donkey walking by,


   Kicked the copper in the eye, » Sent him through a rubber wall,


   Into a dry ditch and drowned them all. » (If you don't believe this lie is true,


   Ask the blind man -- he saw it too!) ... makes even more extreme use of word incompatibility by pairing a number of polar opposites such as day/night, paralyzed/walking, dry/drowned, lie/true, in conjunction with lesser incompatibilities such as swords/shot and rubber/wall.
   Many nursery rhymes are nonsense. For instance ...

» Hey diddle, diddle,


   The cat and the fiddle. » The cow jumped over the moon.


   The little dog laughed to see such fun, » And the dish ran away with the spoon.

Limericks are probably the best known of nonsense verse, although the form tends to be used for bawdy or straightforward humorous effect nowadays rather than for nonsensical effect.
   Among writers in English noted for nonsense verse are Edward Lear, Lewis Carroll, Ogden Nash, Mervyn Peake, Colin West, Roald Dahl, Dr. Seuss and Spike Milligan. The Martian Poets and Ivor Cutler are considered by some to be in the nonsense tradition. 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. The best-known Dutch Nonsense poet is Cees Buddingh'.
   Among German writers, Christian Morgenstern and Ringelnatz are the best-known ones, and both still popular. Robert Gernhardt is a contemporary one. Morgenstern's Nasobēm is an imaginary being, though less frightful than the Jabberwock:

Original

Translation

Auf seinen Nasen schreitet einher das Nasobēm, von seinem Kind begleitet. Es steht noch nicht im Brehm. Es steht noch nicht im Meyer. Und auch im Brockhaus nicht. Es trat aus meiner Leyer zum ersten Mal ans Licht. Auf seinen Nasen schreitet (wie schon gesagt) seitdem, von seinem Kind begleitet, einher das Nasobēm.

Upon its noses strideth Along the Noseybum, With it its child abideth. It's not yet found in Brehm (a zoological reference work). It's not yet found in Meyer (a dictionary equivalent to Webster's). Nor in the Brockhaus (another dictionary, equivalent to the OED). It trotted from my lyre, As first it came to be. Upon its noses strideth (As said before) since then, With it its child abideth, Along the Noseybum.

F.W. Bernstein's observation that

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