Monday, May 12, 2025

Quips and Quotations (Follicle Frolics Edition)




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.

--Edward Lear


 (Look carefully and you might see them.)

 

16 comments:

  1. I like Lear's poem. Of course I can't see anything in his beard and I am trying any longer.

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    1. You'll have to click on the Zoom, Andrew.

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  2. At least there are no owls and pussycats!

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    1. That poem is rather lengthy, Mitchell, and on this blog I reserve the lengthy stuff for my own prose😏

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  3. In addition to being the master of nonsense verse (all incredibly entertaining) Edward Lear was one of the finest wildlife illustrators, especially birds, who ever lived. Few have come close to his perfection.

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    1. Coming from a birder like yourself, David, that's quite a compliment to Mr. Lear. Actually, I think realistic illustration was Lear's main occupation, and nonsense lines just a sideline.

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  4. I remember this poem from a childhood book of nursery rhymes.

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    1. Debra, maybe that book was one that I have at the top of this post.

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    2. Well, not to be pedantic but no, it wasn't. It was in Book 2, "Story Time" of the "My Book House" series (1951) edited by Olive Beaupré Miller, p. 154. I still have the 12 volume set, LOL.

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  5. Hi Kirk, Lear has always been one of my favorites, but you should have used Lear's own illustration that accompanies the limerick!
    --Jim

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    1. Jim, I wanted a picture of his book just in case people were unfamiliar with Lear (judging by these comments, my fears were unrealized.) That IS Lear's drawing, but it accompanies this limerick:

      "There was an Old Man with a owl,
      Who continued to bother and howl;
      He sat on a rail
      And imbibed bitter ale,
      Which refreshed that Old Man and his owl."

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