The pobble who has no toes is one of the greatest poems ever written but am I not a true Learhead if I prefer limericks that don’t reuse rhymes?

The inventor of Limmericks! Enough said.

This copy belonged to my sister.

Some poems in this book made me laugh out loud! Very unrealistic limericks that I got a kick out of- read the ones about noses especially!

A month ago, if you'd asked me what my favourite Lear poem was, I'd have said that renowned tale of the oddest of couples, "The Owl and the Pussycat"... as that was the only Lear poem I knew. It is this famous work of his that opens this collection (and it will always hold a special place in my heart), but it is far from being the only masterpiece within this book.

To quote illustrator John Vernon Lord in his introduction: "Profound truths and feelings can be told in nonsense." There are two poems in this collection I feel demonstrate this in particular. The first is "The Courtship of the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bó" (my NEW favourite Lear poem), which is a tragic tale of unrequited love portrayed with fantastical imagery and words. The second is mock epic "The Jumblies" - a sea voyage in a sieve, again riddled with nonsensical marvellous imagery, but which carries a sense of adventure akin to "The Odyssey". Lord and myself are not the only ones who've noted this pathos amongst the humour: Trevor Bachman's operatic adapation of "Yonghy-Bonghy-Bó" haunted me for days after I heard it, whilst Rory Kinnear's powerhouse reading of "The Jumblies" rightfully gives it the same dignity as a Shakespearean monologue.

I've also noticed that the repetition of places and characters in Lear's story poems almost hint at the possibility of a Lear "canon" or "universe". Consequently, in my head, the Jumblies sail to Boshen and convince Yonghy to return to his lost love, crossing paths with the Owl and the Pussycat and the toeless Pobble en route. (Look, we're in lockdown and I'm feeling a bit blue - just let me imagine this happy ending in peace, OK?)

Many of Lear's limericks feature in this book, and he is considered a master of the craft. Whilst there's no denying his prolific amount of limerick poems and his long-lasting association with the form, I'm personally not a big fan of his distinctive "use the same word/location in the first and last line" style. Regardless of how funny the scene conveyed is (and some of them are brilliantly funny), the mirrored endings (to me, at least) always feel a little like the piece is skidding to a halt, as if another funnier rhyme couldn't be found. Consequently, I much prefer the story poems, which make this collection worth reading all by themselves.

Intrigued by a segment of "the owl and the pussy cat" but when browsing through the whole deck, I decided the author's work is not for me.

I started reading this because my daughter loves The Owl and the Pussycat and The Quangle Wangle's Hat. Now she loves even more, and is able to identify Lear by name.

I admit that the limericks get a bit old after eighty or so of them, but the long poems never do, and I realized as I read this that Lear was a formative influence on many of my favorite artists, especially: Lewis Carrol, Dr. Seuss, and John Lennon.

What a strange collection! I didn’t really know Edward Lear until reading this book. Its very well put together and the illustrations are wonderful. My favorite poem is The Owl and the Pussycat as I remember that fondly from childhood. Many of the limericks were a bit tedious but Lear does have an incredible ability to use language. These poems are best read aloud to fully appreciate the silly words and rhymes.