5 stars for The Owl and the Pussycat, the Jumblies, and Self-Portrait. 1-2 stars for almost everything else in this cursed book. You'd think "nonsense" would be more fun to read, but this was an absolute chore to finish. I have to confess, by the last 50 pages I was just skimming along, praying for it to end.

Turns out I don't like Edward Lear as much as I thought I would.

Why?

I actually read the Poetry SOciety of America's version, but the only reason I read this was because a youtuber said it was difficult in one sitting. The collection also ended up having a Yeats poem that I fell in love with. Quite the experience. Some of the poems truly did make no sense.

Absolutely brilliant!

There was a young reader from Pittsburgh
Who read this weird book full of quirk
It got old so fast, she wanted to blast
That silly young reader from Pittsburgh

This was very peculiar book :P

This elderly volume is a collection of limericks, songs, poetic renditions of things like the alphabet, and a whole host of amusing ink illustrations. I can't remember for sure why I wanted to read this book (other than an abiding fondness for nonsense), but I was very hopeful that I'd find some charming limericks to add to my collection. This form of poetry is much ignored. But it's books like this one that have made it hard for us to take limericks seriously. There was one that I found very clever, but most were not. Of course, this book was written during that age of children's literature when we assumed that children didn't want their books to be meaningful or heartwarming or problem-solving or powerful or magical. They just needed to be funny. In fact, they didn't have to even be good as long as they were fun for children to read aloud. And I honestly can applaud the idea of letting children enjoy their nonsense and not judging them for it. But I find it hard to fathom how anyone who's spent any time in the presence of a child can't understand how perceptive and empathetic a child is. While children love to be entertained, they also want to feel like what they do matters, and reading this book doesn't really matter.

I'll offer an honorable mention for the nonsense botany, which is a collection of fantastical illustrations with made-up Latin-sounding titles. This section is comically reflecting botany texts but offers such rare plants as the bubblia blowpipa and the armchairia comfortabilis. I admit to chortling a little whenever one of these collections came up.

Lear's sensibility obviously inspired subsequent geniuses as diverse as Dr. Seuss, Edward Gorey, and Monty Python, among others.

There's only so many limericks you can read successively without beginning to wonder what you're doing with your life.

I'm not sure which edition of Edward Lear's nonsense poetry I read as a kid so I picked this one. Really enjoyed it!

Throughout my idea of Lear was a Children's Limerick writer! From what I had read about his life, that made sense. He wrote those five-lines rhyming poems for the children of his patron Edward Stanley, the 13th Earl of Derby. After reading this compilation, that view of mine changed considerably! This book has the following parts and along with the reactions are listed under :

1. A Book of Nonsense - √ :) :D
(Ha-ha-ha!!!)
I had read this volume earlier separately and its a joyride. Funny! A nice book for children and adults alike. By following the rhymes, you can also learn about certain pronunciations you did wrong earlier by rhyming along.

2. More Nonsense - √ :D :)
(More ha-ha-ha!!!)
Funny, weird and funny! His neologisms (words not accepted in mainstream literature, but have some popular use of various kinds) are amazing to read aloud, and today many are dictionary words!

3. Nonsense songs - √ :) :D
(Ha-ha-ha. : What?!? Oh! Ha!)
I was a fan of Jumblies and their sieve for quite some time. And they along with Quangle-Wangles, Pobbles are Lear's reappearing heroes. Lear's nonsense songs were once so famous that some phrases became a part of mainstream literature expressions. An example is the "Owl and the Pussy Cat" 's 'runcible spoon'!
"They dined on mince, and slices of quince
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon."
But not all the as nonsensical as the poems. Some are based on "reductio ad absurdum" (reduction to absurdity) where an argument disproves a statement by showing its compulsive absurd conclusion.

4. Nonsense stories and alphabets - √ :) :D
(The first story is okay : typical Lear. BUT the second : Really disturbing!
The parents teach children not to so some things, which they do and all the children of seven families die in weird ways. Perhaps the motivation was to teach the children a lesson of how important it it to listen to parents. But this way seems strange. And then the parents stave themselves and make a pickle of themselves and are now kept in a museum!!!
What was Lear thinking writing these?
They are nonsensical sure, as promised but the sense of humor is very dark and not at all suited for children. It will be disturbing to them, as per myself.
This broke my perception of Lear!

5. Nonsense alphabets - √ :) :D
(Perfect for teaching infants!)

6. Nonsense cookery - √ :) :D
(What does he mean? :P )

7. The Heraldic Blazon of Foss the Cat - √ :) :D
(Hail Foss! _/_ )

In this collection, the type of humor ranges from typical silly, children's to really dark humor. The range I had imagined Lear was set in has been made vast considerably after reading this collection. The variety presented in this particular genre is phenomenal. It is a really good read for limerick lovers and Lear fans.

I give Complete Nonsense by Edward Lear 4 stars! :)

Happy reading! :)

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