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The Poetry of Edward Lear
A popular guest at the Earl of Derbyâ€s Lancashire estate, Edward Lear became adept at creating poems and drawings to entertain other visitors, particularly children. This volume brings together a selection of his limericks and ‘nonsense†alphabets and poems – including the much-loved ‘The Owl and the Pussycat†– and examples of his pen-and-ink illustrations.
256 pages, Paperback
Published April 15, 2019
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About the author
Edward Lear
752 books205 followersEdward Lear was an English artist, illustrator, musician, author and poet, who is known mostly for his literary nonsense in poetry and prose and especially his limericks, a form he popularised.
His principal areas of work as an artist were threefold: as a draughtsman employed to make illustrations of birds and animals; making coloured drawings during his journeys, which he reworked later, sometimes as plates for his travel books; and as a (minor) illustrator of Alfred Tennyson's poems.
As an author, he is known principally for his popular nonsense collections of poems, songs, short stories, botanical drawings, recipes and alphabets. He also composed and published twelve musical settings of Tennyson's poetry.
His principal areas of work as an artist were threefold: as a draughtsman employed to make illustrations of birds and animals; making coloured drawings during his journeys, which he reworked later, sometimes as plates for his travel books; and as a (minor) illustrator of Alfred Tennyson's poems.
As an author, he is known principally for his popular nonsense collections of poems, songs, short stories, botanical drawings, recipes and alphabets. He also composed and published twelve musical settings of Tennyson's poetry.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 7, 2020
Not sure whether this is the same volume that I read. Regardless, every family with young children should have a volume of Lear's poetry. Whimsy and silliness is good for the young soul, as well as for the soul of the young at heart.
November 25, 2024
How pleasant to know Mr. Lear,
Who has written such volumes of stuff.
Some think him ill-tempered and queer,
But a few find him pleasant enough.
I don’t think there has been a film about the great poet of nonsense, Edward Lear, but he would certainly make an interesting subject. He was born one of 21 children. There is some dispute about how many siblings he had. Maybe his parents could not keep count either.
Throughout his life, Lear was plagued by illnesses, ranging from bronchitis to epilepsy, making his survival into his 70s all the more remarkable. Perhaps understandably he was also given to depression. Lear was also a homosexual in the Victorian age, and none of his relationships were satisfactory.
We often hear how humourists endured much suffering and sadness in their lives, and there is something uplifting in the way that they found joy in their work. The melancholy peeps through in occasional verses. A few love affairs go awry, and one creature loses his toes.
However Lear’s most famous poems often have a happy love affair at the centre of them, notably The Owl and the Pussy-cat. It is a degree of fulfilment that Lear never achieved and perhaps that is why his poems are about animals and not humans.
Lear is also famous for his limericks. These may not please many modern readers. There is no punchline, and the last line is often a repetition of the first or second line. Still Lear did essentially popularise and develop the limerick, even if he did not invent it.
There is much fun to be had in them, largely because they involve incongruous and peculiar situations. Often they are accompanied by long words, some of them made up, and some of them acting as non-sequiturs since they do not clearly relate to the rest of the limerick. It is also fun to see which place names Lear will use as the home of his characters, especially since Lear generally chooses the ones that allow the most outrageous rhyming.
Appropriately enough the limericks celebrate eccentricity. The old man, lady or person in the limerick is always doing strange things which put them at odds with the rest of society, something that Lear knew all about.
Throughout Lear’s poetry we have a delicious sense of the unexpected. Animals talk and perform human activities, but it is utterly unpredictable what they will say or do next. The poems are exuberantly nonsensical in both language and subject matter.
Lear’s life may have been lonely, but his verses were loving. He enjoyed writing for children, and he took pleasure in creating verse that was giving and pleasurable. He was not a serious poet, but there is a skill required to be a comic poet, especially since comic poems risk being very tiresome.
I cannot say that Lear is ever tiresome. His alphabets are a little less amusing than his other works, but the limericks are droll and the longer poems are a delight.
Who has written such volumes of stuff.
Some think him ill-tempered and queer,
But a few find him pleasant enough.
I don’t think there has been a film about the great poet of nonsense, Edward Lear, but he would certainly make an interesting subject. He was born one of 21 children. There is some dispute about how many siblings he had. Maybe his parents could not keep count either.
Throughout his life, Lear was plagued by illnesses, ranging from bronchitis to epilepsy, making his survival into his 70s all the more remarkable. Perhaps understandably he was also given to depression. Lear was also a homosexual in the Victorian age, and none of his relationships were satisfactory.
We often hear how humourists endured much suffering and sadness in their lives, and there is something uplifting in the way that they found joy in their work. The melancholy peeps through in occasional verses. A few love affairs go awry, and one creature loses his toes.
However Lear’s most famous poems often have a happy love affair at the centre of them, notably The Owl and the Pussy-cat. It is a degree of fulfilment that Lear never achieved and perhaps that is why his poems are about animals and not humans.
Lear is also famous for his limericks. These may not please many modern readers. There is no punchline, and the last line is often a repetition of the first or second line. Still Lear did essentially popularise and develop the limerick, even if he did not invent it.
There is much fun to be had in them, largely because they involve incongruous and peculiar situations. Often they are accompanied by long words, some of them made up, and some of them acting as non-sequiturs since they do not clearly relate to the rest of the limerick. It is also fun to see which place names Lear will use as the home of his characters, especially since Lear generally chooses the ones that allow the most outrageous rhyming.
Appropriately enough the limericks celebrate eccentricity. The old man, lady or person in the limerick is always doing strange things which put them at odds with the rest of society, something that Lear knew all about.
Throughout Lear’s poetry we have a delicious sense of the unexpected. Animals talk and perform human activities, but it is utterly unpredictable what they will say or do next. The poems are exuberantly nonsensical in both language and subject matter.
Lear’s life may have been lonely, but his verses were loving. He enjoyed writing for children, and he took pleasure in creating verse that was giving and pleasurable. He was not a serious poet, but there is a skill required to be a comic poet, especially since comic poems risk being very tiresome.
I cannot say that Lear is ever tiresome. His alphabets are a little less amusing than his other works, but the limericks are droll and the longer poems are a delight.
January 14, 2026
(3.5) Quite a bundle of quirky and whimsy poetry
“Cold are the Crabs
Cold are the crabs that crawl on yonder hills,
Colder the cucumbers that grow beneath,
And colder still the brazen chops that wreathe
The tedious gloom of philosophic pills!
For when the tardy gloom of nectar fills
The simple bowls of demons and of men,
There lurks the feeble mouse, the homely hen,
And there the porcupine with all her quills.
Yet much remains - to weave a solemn strain
That lingering sadly - slowly dies away,
Daily departing with departing day
A pea-green gamut on a distant plain
Where wily walrusses in congress meet -
Such such is life -“
“Cold are the Crabs
Cold are the crabs that crawl on yonder hills,
Colder the cucumbers that grow beneath,
And colder still the brazen chops that wreathe
The tedious gloom of philosophic pills!
For when the tardy gloom of nectar fills
The simple bowls of demons and of men,
There lurks the feeble mouse, the homely hen,
And there the porcupine with all her quills.
Yet much remains - to weave a solemn strain
That lingering sadly - slowly dies away,
Daily departing with departing day
A pea-green gamut on a distant plain
Where wily walrusses in congress meet -
Such such is life -“
May 4, 2022
I enjoyed the meter and whimsiness of the poetry, but some of the alphabets were odd. Plus, there are other words than King Xerces that start with X, but he used that like 4 or 5 times in his 6 alphabets.
October 7, 2020
Why did I have Spike Milligan's voice in my head as I was reading this book lol 🤪 loved it and didn't know there was a sequel to the owl and the pussycat 🦉🐈
October 14, 2021
Whimsical and the artwork just makes the poems that much better. A fun read.
April 17, 2023
Now I know what to read when I need a pick-me-up :)
October 21, 2024
Lear’s colourful wonderland is cheeky and wry. This slim collection of old world gems is a delightful palette-cleanser, served with a runcible spoon.
December 14, 2023
Quite humorous! Love Lear’s made up words
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews