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Poets/Edward Lear

Edward Lear

1812–1888

Poems
19
Reader comments
10
Portrait of Edward Lear
Edward Lear 1812–1888
1812Born

Biography

Edward Lear (12 May 1812 - 29 January 1888) was a British 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 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 favorably 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.

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.

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.

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License and uses material adapted in whole or in part from the Wikipedia article on Edward Lear.

From readers

What readers say about Edward Lear

  1. On The Owl And The Pussy-Cat

    “ugh what a lack of insight and appreciation for such a lovely poem. for shame! how about some partially intellectual commentary on the repetition, the stresses, the meter, internal rhymes, and romantic imagery? One would hope for SOME rich insight on a poetry forum! Poor Lear would turn in his…”

  2. On The Table And The Chair

    “My mother memorized this poem when she was in grade school during the 1930's. She used to recite it to us when we were growing up. She is now 85. For her birthday we found a piece of sheet music that had put the Table and the Chair to music. It was with two other Lear poems which were also set to…”

Where readers gather

Most discussed

  1. The Owl And The Pussy-Cat5 comments
  2. There was an Old Man of New York2 comments
  3. The Table And The Chair1 comment
  4. There was a Young Lady Whose Eyes1 comment
  5. There Was an Old Man with a Beard1 comment

All 19 poems

A Book of Nonsense Poetry · 1 poem
  1. The Quangle Wangle's Hat
Other poems · 18
  1. How pleasant to know Mr. Lear
  2. The Akond of Swat
  3. The Courtship of the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo
  4. The Dong with a Luminous Nose
  5. The Jumblies
  6. The Owl And The Pussy-Cat5
  7. The Pobble Who Has No Toes
  8. The Table And The Chair1
  9. The Two Old Bachelors
  10. There was a Young Lady Whose Eyes1
  11. There Was an Old Lady Whose Folly
  12. There Was an Old Man in a Tree
  13. There was an Old Man of Calcutta
  14. There was an Old Man of New York2
  15. There was an old man of Thermopylæ
  16. There was an old man on the Border
  17. There Was an Old Man with a Beard1
  18. There Was An Old Person Of Nice