The Faber Book of Nonsense Verse

by Geoffrey Grigson (Editor )

Presents a collection of limericks, nonsense rhymes, and poetic parodies in English, French, Latin, and German

Genres: Poetry

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Grigson was educated at St John's School, Leatherhead, and at St Edmund Hall, Oxford. He first came to prominence in the 1930s as a poet, then as editor from 1933 of the influential poetry magazine New Verse. A teacher, journalist and broadcaster, later in life he was a noted critic, reviewer (for the New York Review of Books in particular), and compiler of many inventive and innovative anthologies. He published 13 collections of poetry, and wrote on travel, on art (notably works on Samuel Palmer, Wyndham Lewis and Henry Moore), on the English countryside, and on botany, among other subjects.
Geoffrey Grigson's first wife was Frances Galt (who died in 1937 of tuberculosis). With her, he founded New Verse. They had one daughter, Caroline (who was married to the designer Colin Banks). Grigson's second marriage was to Berta (Bertschy) Emma Kunert, who bore him two children, Anna and Lionel Grigson, the jazz musician and educator. Following their divorce, Grigson's third and last marriage was to Jane Grigson, née McIntire (1928–90), the writer on food and cookery. Their daughter is the cookery writer Sophie Grigson.
Geoffrey Grigson in his later life lived partly in Wiltshire, England, and partly in Trôo, a village in the Loir-et-Cher département in France, which features in his poetry. He died in Wiltshire in 1985.

Reviews

[Goodreeds User · Rating 1 out of 5]

Complete waste of time

[R.K. Cowles · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 3/4 stars

[David Campton · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a wide-ranging anthology of nonsense verse, not only in English but a few in other languages too. But whilst I enjoyed some, was pleased to encounter some old familiar "friends", and was impressed with the poetic skills of many of the authors, my overall feeling was one of "what a waste of time" for both poet and me as reader.

[Lucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to argue with quite a lot about this anthology. Let's start with the title - Nonsense? When it includes several poems by Stevie Smith ? Humorous wouldn't do as a title either....in fact, there are a great many poems in this volume that just do not belong in any category. It contains some wonderful Lewis Carroll in addition to the familiar stuff, some Swinburne that is indistinguishable, to me at least, from his serious poetry, tedious nursery rhymes, the brilliant Lord Chancellor's patter song from 'Iolanthe' - you see what I mean? Eclectic, that's what I mean. BUT I object mightily to the inclusion of poems in French. You have to be an awfully fluent and knowledgeable reader and speaker of a foreign language to know what is nonsense or not. Overall verdict must be 5 star, though, if only for the joy of discovering that A E Housman wasn't always melancholic, and that Prime Minister George Canning had a turn for witty verse? Oh, but there's too much Edward Lear - he may have invented the limerick, but wasn't terribly good at writing them.

[Rhys · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the books I bought from Oxfam in Aberystwyth in the summer of 2022 and shipped over to India. Nonsense verse from the past 500 years. The earliest work here is frankly not very amusing by modern standards and consists largely of variations on the ancient 'Land of Cockaigne' myth, where food and drink are in endless abundance.

The anthology really starts to shine when it reaches the 19th and 20th Centuries. Edward Lear, of course, and Thomas Hood and Lewis Carroll, Hilaire Belloc, W.S. Gilbert and Walter de la Mare, Algernon Swinburne (incredibly convoluted) and Stevie Smith. Shame that Mervyn Peake, Spike Milligan and Ivor Cutler are missing, but very impressed by A.E. Housman's contributions (and surprised too). This volume has also introduced me to a poet I had never heard of who turns out to be brilliant. Christian Morgenstern...