Nonsense Poems
By Edward Lear
()
About this ebook
Who was horribly bored by a Bee;
When they said, "Does it buzz?" He replied, "Yes, it does!
It’s a regular brute of a Bee."
Generations of children and adults have delighted in the whimsical poems of Edward Lear (1812-88). And, despite his achievements as a noted English landscape painter and illustrator of animal life, Lear today is best known for his delightful volumes of nonsense verse. This work spanned several decades — from the first charming lines he wrote in the 1830s for the children of the Earl of Derby to his last collection of poems, published in 1877.
This volume contains a rich sampling of Lear’s inspired nonsense, including more than 90 delightful limericks as well as a choice selection of longer poems along with the amusing illustrations he drew for each. Among these are such classics as "The Owl and the Pussy-cat," and "The Jumblies" as well as a number of lesser-known but equally charming selections: "Calico Pie," "The Duck and the Kangaroo," "Incidents in the Life of My Uncle Arly," "The Daddy Long-legs and the Fly," "The Broom, the Shovel, The Poker, and the Tongs," "Mr. and Mrs. Spikky Spider" and "The Courtship of the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bó."
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Nonsense Poems - Edward Lear
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DOVER CHILDREN’S THRIFT CLASSICS
EDITOR OF THIS VOLUME: CANDACE WARD
Copyright
Copyright © 1994 by Dover Publications, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Bibliographical Note
Nonsense Poems is a new collection of nonsense verse written and illustrated by Edward Lear, first published by Dover Publications, Inc. in 1994. These poems were originally published in A Book of Nonsense (1846), Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany, and Alphabets (1871), More Nonsense, Pictures, Rhymes, Botany, etc. (1872), Laughable Lyrics, A Fourth Book of Nonsense Poems, Songs, Botany, Music, etc. (1877) and Nonsense Songs and Stories (1895).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lear, Edward, 1812–1888.
Nonsense poems / Edward Lear.
p. cm.—(Dover children’s thrift classics)
Summary: A new collection of nonsense verses, many beginning There was an old man . . .
or There was a young lady . . .
9780486310619
1. Children’s poetry, English. 2. Nonsense verses, English.
[1. Nonsense verses. 2. English poetry.] I. Title. II. Series.
PR4879.L2N59 1994
821’.8—dc20
93–39193
CIP
AC
Manufactured in the United States by Courier Corporation
28031402
www.doverpublications.com
Note
EDWARD LEAR was born on May 12, 1812, the twentieth of twenty-one children. He was a strange-looking child, shortsighted and with a very large nose, who suffered from asthma, bronchitis and epilepsy. Perhaps his ill health contributed to his withdrawn character, but for whatever reason, Lear spent much of his childhood writing poetry, sketching and reading books on natural history.
In 1832 Lear was commissioned by Lord Stanley, later 13th Earl of Derby, to illustrate a book on his private menagerie of over 300 animals and 1700 birds. For the next five years, Lear lived with his patron’s family, endearing himself to the household’s many children with his nonsensical stories and songs. The result of these spontaneous entertainments was Lear’s first Book of Nonsense, published anonymously in 1846. Although Lear