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Edward Lear
On Lear and Nonsense
- A Very Good Children’s Book (1865)
- Nonsense Verse, &c. (1880)
- Word-Twisting Versus Nonsense (1887)
- Concerning Nonsense (1889)
- Delightful Nonsense (1890)
- G.K. Chesterton, A Defence of Nonsense (1902)
- The Poems in Alice in Wonderland (1903)
- Limericks (1903)
- Ian Malcolm on Edward Lear (1908)
- G.K. Chesterton, Two Kinds of Paradox (1911)
- H. Jackson, Masters of Nonsense (1912)
- H. Hawthorne, Edward Lear (1916)
- G.K. Chesterton, Child Psychology and Nonsense (1921)
- How Pleasant to Know Mr Lear (1932)
- G.K. Chesterton, Both Sides of the Looking-Glass (1933)
- G.K. Chesterton, Humour (1938)
- G. Orwell, Nonsense Poetry (1945)
- George Orwell, Funny, But Not Vulgar (1945)
- Michele Sala, Lear’s Nonsense: Beyond Children’s Literature
- More Articles
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Tag Archives: Limerick
“Nonsense!” – Words from Edward Lear, music by Mel Orriss
Festive Flutes and Mel Orriss perform six of Lear’s limericks set to music.
Legend of the Large Mouth
Food is one of the recurrent themes of Victorian Nonsense and Edward Lear certainly used it quite a lot; some of his limericks present gluttony as rather scary, for instance ther “Old Man of Calcutta”: The “Old man of the … Continue reading
Variant Versions of Edward Lear’s Limericks
‘There was an old person of Skye,/ Who was nearly a hundred feet high;/ He seemed to the people/ As tall as a steeple,/ And served as a lighthouse on Skye.’ (upper left) pen and brown ink, partial watermark ’18…’ … Continue reading
Posted in Edward Lear
Tagged Edward Lear, Limerick, manuscripts, nonsense rhymes, poems
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Three New Pieces of Nonsense by Edward Lear
The latest TLS (no. 6169 of 25 June 2021) contains three new Nonsense compositions by Edward Lear, found by Amy Wilcockson and Edmund Downey among the papers in the Charnwood Autograph Collection, British Library Add MS 70949, f. 239, f. … Continue reading
Posted in Edward Lear
Tagged Edward Lear, letters, Limerick, manuscripts, poems, self caricature
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Little Bits of Nonsense
Here is another sequence of illustrated limericks that appeared in the early American comics supplements, in this case in the Detroit Free Press of 22 November, 1902. I have been unable to find more instalments. Thanks to Sunday Press Books‘ Peter … Continue reading
Irish Literary ‘Learics’
I have long thought that the word “learic” was an invention of modrn limerick scholars desperate to find a way to justify the word “limerick,” whose origin as it is applied to Edward Lear’s nonsenses is mysterious, but here is … Continue reading
An Early Limerick Manuscript
Manuscript. An illustrated book of limericks, circa 1865, 32pp., each with large illustration and limerick beneath in brown ink, some spotting and marks, paper watermarked ‘T & J H 1865’, sheet size 14 x 23cm (5.5 x 9ins), stitching broken … Continue reading
Northrop Frye on Edward Lear’s Last Lines
July 23, 1932 I read in a book on the limerick the other day by some supercilious ass who talked about Edward Lear as a pioneer but a childish and inane primitive because his first and last lines ended with … Continue reading
There was an Old Man of Whitehaven…
There was an Old Man of Whitehaven, Who danced a quadrille with a raven; But they said, ‘It’s absurd To encourage this bird!’ So they smashed that Old Man of Whitehaven. From the Recent Antiquarian Acquisitions blog at the Lewis … Continue reading
Posted in Edward Lear
Tagged caricature, Edward Lear, Limerick, nonsense rhymes, theodore lane
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