This is a remarkably goofy and entertaining book for little people. Lear did write nonsense, yet, if you’ve ever had children or are currently blessed with them, this book should be read aloud. The giggles alone from the young ones will cure whatever ails you.

To be honest, there wasn't enough nonsense.

IF you want to escape from the world of the mundane into the humorous look no further than picking up a copy of Edward Lear’s The Book of Nonsense and Nonsense Songs.
Lear was the inventor of the Limerick. The first time I read one was probably in 1964 or 1965 when I borrowed a friend’s English textbook which contained some of Mr Lear’s limericks. I immediately fell in love with them. Several decades later I started writing my own and thoroughly enjoyed doing so.

image:

image:

The book is a compilation of two of Mr Lear’s books: The Book of Nonsense followed by Nonsense Songs. The first consists solely of limericks and the second of longer nonsense verses. Each limerick has a funny illustration right above it while each nonsense poem contains several sketches, not all of which are comical. The beautiful cover of the book has been taken from the limerick There was an Old Man of Corfu.
Lear travelled widely from Calabria to Corsica and from Italy to Illyna; from Egypt to Albania and from Greece to India. Sometimes you get the feeling that he is building amusing character sketches of people he actually met or at least saw during his travels. Or maybe they are just a figment of his imagination which he has no dearth of. Some limericks might make you laugh and some others might even make you roll on the floor like the following ones:
There was an Old Man with a beard
Who said, “It is just as I feared! -
Two Owls and a Hen,
Four Larks and a Wren,
Have all built their nests in my beard!”

image:

There was an Old Person of Rheims
Who was troubled with horrible dreams;
So to keep him awake,
They fed him on cake,
Which amused that old person of Rheims.

There was an old Person of Sparta,
Who had twenty-five sons and one “darter”;
He fed them on snails,
And weighed them in scales,
That wonderful person of Sparta.

We all know that ‘darter’ alludes to daughter. However, Mr Lear is not only coining darter to make it rhyme with Sparta but is also doing so to make the limerick more lighthearted. Or maybe he visited a certain place where the people pronounced daughter as darter. In the same way in another limerick he alludes to serpent as “sarpint.” The innovative word certainly tickles your bones.
Here is another one which I found to be extremely jocular:
There was an Old Lady of Chertsey,
Who made a remarkable curtsey;
She twirled round and round
Till she sank underground,
Which distressed all the people of Chertsey.

The British writer’s coinage of words and the stretching of his imagination will truly dazzle you. Spontaneous becomes sponge-taneous and “What is the matter” becomes “What matter?” In one of his limericks, he writes about a “cream-coloured ass” and you actually wish you could see one and maybe ride on it too.

image:
A sketch of Edward Lear during his youth.

During his life he suffered from depression and epilepsy, which is why you often get the feeling that his highly inventive verse had a melancholic undertone. The following are three examples of this:
There was an Old Man of the Cape
Who possessed a large Barbary Ape,
Till the ape one dark night
Set the house all alight,
Which burned that Old Man of the Cape.

There was a Young Lady of Clare,
Who was sadly pursued by a bear;
When she found she was tired,
She abruptly expired,
That unfortunate Lady of Clare.

There was an Old Person of Ems,
Who casually fell in the Thames;
And when he was found
They said he was drowned,
That unlucky Old Person of Ems.

You don’t laugh at a house set on fire or at the death of an Old Man who gets scorched. Neither do you make fun of a Young Lady who dies as a result of heart failure on being chased by a grizzly bear nor at the accidental death of an Old Person who dies as a consequence of drowning.
While writing about the attributes of Mr. Lear, John Ruskin said, “I really don’t know any author to whom I am half so grateful for my idle self as Edward Lear. I shall put him first of my hundred authors.”

image:

Mr. Lear abundantly uses adjectives, especially in the last line of each limerick, to emphasize the reaction on the protagonist of the poem. He keeps inventing nonsense words like runcible, ombliferous, etc. The first word appears, as an adjective, several times in his works, most famously as the “runcible spoon” used by the Owl and the Pussycat.
Nonsense Songs starts with The Owl and the Pussy-cat. It talks about the romance – I repeat romance– between an Owl and a Pussycat, entirely in verse. It is followed by poems like The Duck and the Kangaroo, The Daddy Long-Legs and The Fly and The Jumblies. Each has a story to tell and is thoroughly amusing in its own right.
The London-born writer uses alliteration and imagery throughout the book which makes it even more enjoyable.
A limerick is one of the few forms of poetry that entertains both children and adults. If you have not read any of Mr Lear’s books, then you should start off with this one right away.

This book’s name does actually matches its content AND I WAS NOT READY FOR THAT!
Considering the book’s blurb, I expected the verses to be quite humorous, nevertheless, personally, I found that the underlying tone of its nonexistent parody to be deeply depressing and reflecting of the melancholic state of the author.
I don’t think I’ll ever be able to recommend this book to any group age. However, I believe it might be suitable for a critical commentary study.

An enjoyable book of nonsense with beautiful illustrations. I can just imagine the fun children of the 19th Century would have had reading these silly limericks and their associated illustrations. A lot of nostalgic fun.

Before I begin my review, I wish to try my hand at the art of the limerick. Trust me, people, it's not that easy to write a limerick. And I have that to say to those who rated these limericks and beautifully rhymed and phrased nonsense songs anything less than four stars.

So, here I go:

"I have a jar of bloody good Marmite
At a first glance it looks alright
To some, it tastes like hell
To me, it is more than well
That jar of bloody good Marmite."

Well, it's not too bad, in retrospect.

There are a few reviews here on Goodreads that have clearly steered way beyond the mark of understanding what limericks, nonsense songs, or for that matter, nonsense is all about. They were trying to find some meaning or absurd logic in the limericks, as if there could ever be any meaning about the men and women, both quirky and grotesque, and all the equally strange, sad and silly things that happen to them in these wacky little episodes of five lines each. The truth is that there is no logic, there is no meaning to be found in nonsense. Nonsense is to be enjoyed as it is - and that is what makes it hilarious and also a perfect escape from too much over-thinking as well.

Beyond limericks and nonsense lyrics, Edward Lear had something of an enviable reputation as a storyteller, artist, chronicler and travel writer. And that is why so many of these limericks have a truly eclectic style to them, as they introduce us to a cast of enjoyably nutty, jaunty and misshapen characters from across the world - from Corfu to Crete, from England to Prague, from Madras to Nepal, from Jamaica to Sweden, from Apulia to Peru and so many more exotic names and place strewn all over these hundred or so pages. And as much as we marvel at the sheer breadth of Lear's globe-trotting imagination and his spontaneous wit, we should also remember that these are not to be taken seriously at all. They are essentially fine, brilliant specimens of....nonsense and that is how they should be enjoyed.

It is the second book wrapped up with these limericks, however, that reveal a deeper, even more wistful side to the writer even as they don't skimp on the hilarity and unhinged imagination. "Nonsense Songs" is made up of a dozen of witty, warm, beautifully picturesque, irreverently picaresque and even lightly melancholic songs that deserve to be recited out aloud like any great verse in the history of poem. As with the limericks, it is impossible to pick out a favourite from these songs. But if I have to cite a favourite, it has to be "The Dong With A Luminous Nose" - a nonsense song which unexpectedly makes "sense" without trying to do so and is laced with a sense of deep romantic yearning that can almost break your heart.

This was a quick, quirky and worthy read from cover to cover and I think I will be returning to it again and again, whenever the mood would become melancholy and whenever the world around me would stop making sense. I think we can all agree on that last part and that reminds me to sign off this review with another attempt at a limerick.

"The world is full of fear
And only disaster is what I hear
What can I do?
I have the answer, too
Better read some Edward Lear..."

There was a Young Lady whose nose,
Was so long that it reached to her toes;
So she hired an Old Lady,
Whose conduct was steady,
To carry that wonderful nose.

Πάντα ήθελα να διαβάσω ένα βιβλίο με limericks (σύντομα σατυρικά ποιήματα πέντε στροφών). Ο Edward Lear (1812-1888) ήταν Άγγλος ποιητής και σκιτσογράφος, και ο πρώτος που καθιέρωσε αυτή τη μορφή ποιημάτων, τα οποία ήταν τρομερά δημοφιλή στην εποχή του. Όπως λέει και ο τίτλος, τα ποιηματάκια αυτά δεν βγάζουν κανένα απολύτως νόημα, και σίγουρα θα μου φαίνονταν πολύ πιό αστεία αν άκουγα να τα απαγγέλλει ένα χειμωνιάτικο βράδυ δίπλα απ' το τζάκι κάποιος μεθυσμένος εγγλέζος αριστοκράτης, μετά από ένα καλό κυνήγι φασιανού κι ένα γερό φαγοπότι. Διαβάζοντας τα μέρα μεσημέρι, ξεμέθυστη και μέσα στο λιοπύρι, δυστυχώς έχασαν μεγάλο μέρος από τη γοητεία τους.

n  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 the smashed that Old Man of Whitehaven.n

I picked this up from the Oxfam Online Second-hand Bookshop when I was looking for some folios to add to our collection. Having found Edward Lear's Complete Nonsense, I noticed this lovely edition of his first published Limericks.

You can't help but smile as you read them and you linger on the page, soaking up the illustrations which bring the amusing scenarios to life. I am even more looking forward to reading the Folio now. 4 stars.

More like a book of delights, I’d say. Though it has a ridiculous number of old men and woman, coming all into one single book, from all corners of the world, I’m more than sure that real people too will like it.

The limericks in this book are undoubtedly delightful and addictive to read. The silliness of them will engage children who have perhaps not heard limericks before and Lear's illustrations also entertain.

What typifies Lear's limericks is that the first and last line are usually the same or at least end in the same word. I personally find this entertaining but mostly because it annoys my father to realms of such irritation I cannot stop reading them aloud! However, I do agree there is something slightly unsophisticated about the rhythm of the rhyme.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Lear's limericks for the first time in this book as they are charming in their simplicity. Reading this with children in a classroom setting would be fun and would certainly inspire some silly attempts in creating their own.

Quite good for entertainment

The boon Is basically a listo of verses. They allá have a rhyme and weere melodic. What i toon with me the most was the fact they use a Lot of vicabulary. Out of that the book of called the book of nonsenses and the book takes really serious.

The thing I enjoy most about nonsense poetry is the clever wit. This collection however was sadly devoid of this.