Edward Lear, 1812-1888

Eagle Owl, Edward Lear, 1837

Another Edward Lear owl, in his more familiar style

Edward Lear (12 May 1812 – 29 January 1888) was an artist, illustrator and writer known for his nonsensical poetry and his limericks, a form which he popularised. He was born in Highgate, a suburb of London, the 20th child of his parents and was raised by his eldest sister, Ann, twenty-one years his senior. At the age of fifteen, he and his sister had to leave the family home and set up house together. He started work as a serious illustrator and his first publication, at the age of 19, was Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots in 1830. His paintings were well received and he was favourably compared with Audubon. Throughout his life he continued to paint seriously. He had a lifelong ambition to illustrate Tennyson's poems; near the end of his life a volume with a small number of illustrations was published, but his vision for the work was never realised. edwardlear. ... edwardlear. ... This is a reduced copy of an image obtained at http://www. ... This is a reduced copy of an image obtained at http://www. ... Edward Lear, illustration for The Owl and the Pussycat Directly scanned from an 1888 copy of Nonsense Books by Edward Lear, Boston, Roberts Brothers. ... Edward Lear, illustration for The Owl and the Pussycat Directly scanned from an 1888 copy of Nonsense Books by Edward Lear, Boston, Roberts Brothers. ... May 12 is the 132nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (133rd in leap years). ... 1812 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... January 29 is the 29th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1888 (MDCCCLXXXVIII) is a leap year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. ... Look up artist in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... An illustrator is a graphic artist who specializes in enhancing written text by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text. ... The term writer can apply to anyone who creates a written work, but the word more usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, or those who have written in many different forms. ... Nonsense verse is a form of poetry, normally composed for humorous effect, which is intentionally and overtly paradoxical, silly, witty, whimsical or just plain strange. ... A limerick is a five-line, often humorous and ribald poem with a strict meter, popularized by Edward Lear and Ogden Nash. ... View of Highgate, John Constable, 1st quarter of 19th century. ... London (pronounced ) is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom. ... Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix commemorates the July Revolution 1830 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... John James Audubon John James Audubon (April 26, 1785 – January 27, 1851) was a Franco-American ornithologist, naturalist, and painter. ... Lord Tennyson, Poet Laureate Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (August 6, 1809 - October 6, 1892) is generally regarded as one of the greatest English poets. ...

He did not keep good health. From the age of seven until the time of his death he suffered frequent grand mal epileptic seizures, as well as bronchitis, asthma, and in later life, partial blindness. Epilepsy in animals and List of people believed to have epilepsy cover topics complementary to this article, which deals with epilepsy in the general human population. ... This article is about the medical term, epileptic seizure, as distinct from psychogenic non-epileptic seizure. ... clinically as a persistent cough that produces sputummatter that is coughed up from the respiratory tract, for at least three months in two consecutive years. ... Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or psychological factors. ...

In 1846 he published A Book of Nonsense, a volume of limericks which went through three editions and helped popularise the form. In 1865 The History of the Seven Families of the Lake Pipple-Popple was published, and in 1867 his most famous piece of nonsense, The Owl and the Pussycat, which he wrote for the children of his patron Edward Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby. Many other works followed. See Wikipedia:Nonsense for the usage of Nonsense in Wikipedia. ... Edward Lears illustration of the Owl and the Pussycat The Owl and the Pussycat is a famous nonsense poem by Edward Lear, first published in 1871. ... Edward Smith Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby (April 21, 1775 - June 30, 1851) was an English politician, landowner, builder, farmer, art collector and naturalist. ...

Lear's writing

Edward Lear's nonsense works are distinguished by a facility of verbal invention and a poet's delight in the sounds of words, both real and imaginary. A stuffed rhinoceros becomes a "diaphanous doorscraper". A "blue Boss-Woss" plunges into "a perpendicular, spicular, orbicular, quadrangular, circular depth of soft mud". His heroes are Quangle-Wangles, Pobbles, and Jumblies. His most famous piece of verbal invention occurs in the closing lines of The Owl and the Pussycat: Edward Lears illustration of the Owl and the Pussycat The Owl and the Pussycat is a famous nonsense poem by Edward Lear, first published in 1871. ...

  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.

The "runcible spoon", a Lear neologism, entered the language and is now found in almost any English dictionary. A runcible spoon is a fictitious utensil that appears in the nonsense poetry of Edward Lear. ...

Limericks are invariably typeset as five lines today, but Edward Lear's limericks were published in a variety of formats. It appears that Lear wrote them in manuscript basically in as many lines as there was room for beneath the picture. In the first three editions, most are typeset as, respectively, three, five, and three lines. The cover of one edition [1] bears an entire limerick typeset in only two lines, thus:

  There was an Old Derry down Derry, who loved to see little folks merry;
  So he made them a book, and with laughter they shook at the fun of that Derry down Derry.

In Lear's limericks, the first and last lines usually end with the same word, rather than rhyming. For the most part, they are truly nonsensical and devoid of any punch line or point; there is nothing in them to "get". They are completely free of the off-colour humour with which the verse form is now associated. A typical thematic element is the presence of a callous and critical "they". An example of a typical Lear limerick: The term off-color humor (also known as dirty jokes or blue humor) is used to describe various dirty jokes, prose, poems, black comedy and skits that deal with topics that are considered to be in poor taste or overly vulgar by the prevailing morals in a culture. ...

  There was an Old Man of Aôsta,
  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 Aôsta!'

Among Lear's tremble-bembles and the chippy-wippy-sikki-tees can be found some very felicitous turns of phrase. Lear's self-portrait in verse, How Pleasant to know Mr. Lear, closes with this stanza, a pleasant reference to his own mortality: In poetry, a stanza is a unit within a larger poem. ...

  He reads but he cannot speak Spanish,
    He cannot abide ginger-beer;
  Ere the days of his pilgrimage vanish,
    How pleasant to know Mr. Lear!

Edward Lear self portrait

Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1077x1124, 249 KB) Summary Edward Lear self-portrait. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1077x1124, 249 KB) Summary Edward Lear self-portrait. ...

Personal life

The love of Lear's life was Sir Franklin Lushington, Chief Magistrate of London. Together they travelled the world, while Lear indulged his passion for painting.^[1]

Notes

1. ^ Susan Chitty, That Singular Person Called Lear, Atheneum, 1989

Works

• Illustrations of the Family of the Psittacidæ (1832)
• Tortises, Terrapins, and Turtles by J.E. Gray
• Views in Rome and its Environs (1841)
• Gleanings from the Menagerie at Knowsley Hall (1846)
• Illustrated Excursions in Italy (1846)
• Book of Nonsense (1846)
• Journal of a Landscape Painter in Greece and Albania (1851)
• Journal of a Landscape Painter in Souther Albania (1852)
• Book of Nonsense and More Nonsense (1862)
• Views in the Seven Ionian Isles (1863)
• Journal of a Landscape Painter in Corsica (1870)
• Nonsense Songs and Stories (1871)
• More Nonsense Songs, Pictures, etc. (1872)
• Laughable Lyrics (1877)
• Nonsense Alphabets
• Nonsense Botany (1888)
• Tennyson's Poems, illustrated by Lear (1889)
• Facsimile of a Nonsense Alphabet (1849, but not published until 1926)

For the runtime engine for Perl 6, see Parrot virtual machine. ... John Edward Gray. ... Alfred, Lord Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom after William Wordsworth and is one of the most popular English poets Much of his verse was based on classical or mythological themes, although In Memoriam was written to...

External links

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Edward Lear

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Edward Lear

Wikisource has original works written by or about:

Edward Lear

• Works by Edward Lear at Project Gutenberg
• Edward Lear's Books of Nonsense
• Edward Lear Home Page at nonsenselit.org
• Reelyredd's Poetry Pages The Daddylonglegs and The Fly (audio file)
• Works by Edward Lear in e-book