Tag Archives: nonsense words

Tolkien’s Nevbosh Limerick

Posted on June 17, 2014 by Marco Graziosi

From Joan Acocella’s “Slaying Monsters,” in The New Yorker for 2 June 2014, a review of the recently published translation of Beowulf by J.R.R. Tolkien: Tolkien was a serious philologist from the time he was a child. He and his cousin Mary … Continue reading →

Posted in Limerick, Nonsense Lyrics | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Ye Ancient Fizzgiggious Fish

Posted on September 9, 2013 by Marco Graziosi

The fizzgiggious Fish, who always walked about upon Stilts, because he had no legs.   Hours of Joanna the Mad (Add MS 18852), a spectacular Book of Hours that was produced for Joanna of Castile (more frequently, and somewhat unfairly, … Continue reading →

Posted in Edward Lear | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Something to Read

Posted on November 22, 2012 by Marco Graziosi

I do not have much time for posting at the moment, but here are a few recent items that might be of interest: Peter Byrne has an interesting article on “Edward Lear of the Disappearing Nose” at Swans.com A short … Continue reading →

Posted in Edward Lear | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Vers nonsensiques (1)

Posted on March 3, 2012 by Marco Graziosi

I have already discussed a “comic strip” by George Du Maurier, The Egg Poacher: A Tale of Country Life, which appeared in Punch in 1869. A few years later Du Maurier was to prove his literary talent by producing a … Continue reading →

Posted in Limerick | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Mr Leer, Humpty Dumpty and Finnegan

Posted on January 8, 2011 by Marco Graziosi

There is an interesting article in the the London Review of Books (vol. 32, no. 24, 16 December 2010), “Quashed Quotatoes,” in which Michael Wood reviews a new edition of James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake. The opening paragraphs discuss Joyce’s debt … Continue reading →

Posted in Edward Lear, Lewis Carroll, Limerick | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment