Such a fun read! This little gem is packed with great nonsens poems for you to enjoy and share!

Fun

A rather short, fun book. It can teach advanced vocabulary- descriptive words mostly and the pronunciation of countries and places- to young children.

Such silliness! I remember this as having been printed in its entirety in a Better Homes & Gardens (I think) children's anthology now infamous for also having contained "Little Black Sambo."
I saw one on ebay a couple of years ago for over $100.
The Edward Lear book was probably my second exposure to British humor, the first being Gilbert & Sullivan operettas, which my mother played and sang along to on our hifi starting when I was a wee sprout.

This book was such a fun, goofy read! Highly recommend you read it if you feel stressed in life right now.

A required book for all crazy aunts to read to their nieces (& nephews)n I grew up with this book.

I don’t know what was original about this set of pens/songs. Obviously for children, but even then who wants to listen to 100 variations of “there was a man/lady from ____” who did something and then either died or went back to that place (or never went back). Weird obsession with long noses.

Clearly not a fan of limericks, so take with a grain of salt.

An amusing collection of silly rhymes.

There was a Young Person of Smyrna,

Whose Grandmother threatened to burn her;

But she seized on the Cat,

And said, "Granny, burn that!

"You incongruous Old Woman of Smyrna!"




I'm sure this was hilarious a million years ago. First book I read on our iPad.

3.5 stars
Technically the title admits that it is filled with nonsense and it does not lie. It's filled with disconnected quintains. Some of them are fun, some of them present new words that can be googled and learned, some poems seem to say: Learn geography with Lear! There are some slightly gruesome ones with people dying in uncommon ways and it seems to be kink with Lear, but whatever keeps his boat floating!

Things I liked:
1: The invention of words. My favorite: ombliferous. I think we should invite gen Z to a Lear reading party and have them find uses for those unknown, made up words and popularize them.
2: Edward Lear said: away with toxic masculinity and I love it!
ㅤㅤㅤ"There was an Old Man with a poker,
ㅤㅤㅤㅤWho painted his face with red oker;
ㅤㅤㅤㅤWhen they said, “You’re a Guy!”
ㅤㅤㅤㅤHe made no reply,
ㅤㅤㅤㅤBut knocked them all down with his poker."
3: Some of the poems appear like writing prompts inviting someone else to make a story out of them, since a lot of the people he writes about are a little bit off and fantasy authors do love to write about characters with strange quirks. Examples:
ㅤㅤㅤ1: "There was an Old Person of Cromer,
ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤWho stood on one leg to read Homer"
ㅤㅤㅤ2: "There was an Old Person of Tring,
ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤWho embellished his nose with a ring;
ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤHe gazed at the moon,
ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤEvery evening in June"
ㅤㅤㅤ3: "He built a balloon, To examine the moon"

*Only got to read an edition with 112 poems and no illustrations, so I might be severely lacking in some other fun stuff.*

My favourite limericks:

There was a young person of Smyrna,
Whose grandmother threatened to burn her;
But she seized on the cat,
And said, “Granny, burn that!
"You incongruous old woman of Smyrna!”

There was an old lady of Chertsey,
Who made a remarkable curtsey;
She twirled round and round,
Till she sunk underground,
Which distressed all the people of Chertsey.

I marvel that so many venerate this book of (mostly) limericks for children. Lear deserves credit for inventing the form, but only 2 or 3 are satisfying. Most repeat most of the first line in the last, making the rhyme unsatisfying, most make no logical sense, most are pointless, and none are cute, clever, or even interesting. Lear's own line drawings are inept, and do not charm me. Lear has a cult following who, like Ruskin, venerate his work. I wonder why.

There once was a writer named Lear
With a lauded poetic career,
But based on these rhymes
(Mediocre, most times),
The cause of his fame is unclear.

Alright, so that might be a bit harsh (or as Lear might say, borascible). Lear does have some moments of humorous nonsense here (though nothing that made me laugh out loud), and I appreciated some of his entertaining and obscure adjectives (both real and freshly coined). But this edition is entirely made up of limericks, which is a hard sell from the start, and even the ones that I found amusing still have drawbacks:

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!

There was an Old Man who said, Hush!
I perceive a young bird in this bush!
When they said - Is it small?
He replied - Not at all!
It is four times as big as the bush!

There was an Old Man of Acosta,
Who possessed a large cow, but he lost her;
But they said, Don't you see,
She has rushed up a tree?
You invidious Old Man of Acosta!

There was an Old Man in a boat,
Who said, I'm afloat! I'm afloat!
When they said, No! You Ain't!
He was ready to faint,
That unhappy Old Man in a boat.

I feel like he has to lose points for reusing end words rather than coming up with three distinct words that rhyme for lines 1, 2, and 5. The majority of his limericks employ this tactic, and it weakens their novelty, which is a problem since a book made up entirely of traditional limericks on similar subjects is already prone to feeling very repetitive.

I'm still open to reading more Lear... but preferably something other than limericks.