Nonsense Songs

Edward LearProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.0

Word count: 66K words
Chapters: 7

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971, and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today. Nonsense Songs by Edward Lear. Author: Lear, Edward, 1812-1888. Language: English. Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres. Release Date: Oct 8, 2004

Editor's review

Edward Lear's Nonsense Songs is an unavoidable volume in English nonsense poetry. Its poems do not aim to instruct; they produce pleasure through sliding sounds, deliberate logical dislocation, and the accumulation of absurd images, and they often taste better read aloud than silently. Lear was a painter by profession, and the pictures he made for such poems complement the words, creating a light yet odd overall effect. As a public-domain electronic text, the book works well as a sample for poetry beginners and language play: its short length lowers the threshold, while its repetitive rhythms make it easy to read aloud and memorize. For child readers it is material for training language sense; for adults it reminds them that poetry need not always be serious. When reading, slow down and treat each poem as a little theater, letting sound act before meaning.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Parents and teachers who want to build English language sense in children
Adult readers who enjoy absurd literature and language play
Learners who need short read-aloud material to practice pronunciation
Readers interested in the non-serious tradition in English poetry

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting complete narratives or clear moral lessons
Readers who prefer serious lyric poetry and strictly metrical works

Reading tips

Read each poem aloud once, then look at the text to see how the absurd images advance
No need to read in order; dip into short poems at random as bedtime or break-time reading
After reading, try retelling the absurd scenes in your own words to check comprehension

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

What age are these poems suitable for?

The poems are short and strongly rhythmic, making them suitable for primary-school children to read aloud with an adult. Younger children can first listen to audio or an adult reading to enjoy the sounds; acceptance varies with each child's language experience, so parents may try one or two poems first.

What if I don't understand the nonsense poems?

Such poems are not meant to convey clear meaning, so there is no need to worry about not understanding them. Focus first on sound effects and imagery: notice which strange figures appear and how they are combined, and treat reading as play rather than puzzle-solving.

Does the electronic edition retain the original illustrations?

This is a public-domain electronic text released by Project Gutenberg, and whether illustrations appear in full depends on the file format of the specific edition. If your reading device supports images, look for how illustrations work with the text; if it is a plain-text edition, simply focus on the poems' sound and imagination.

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About the author

Edward Lear Author · British · 1812–1888

Edward Lear (1812–1888) was a British artist, illustrator and poet, born in Holloway, London, the youngest of 21 children, and raised by his eldest sister. He made his early living by drawing bird plates, including work for the Earl of Derby's menagerie, and his parrot illustrations were notably precise; he later turned to landscape painting and travelled in Italy, Greece, Egypt and India. He never married and died in San Remo, Italy, in 1888. Lear is best known for his nonsense verse, including A Book of Nonsense, Nonsense Songs, More Nonsense and Laughable Lyrics. Blending absurd imagination, playful rhythm and his own illustrations, his work combines verbal games with strange imagery and has deeply influenced later children's literature and humorous poetry.