The Owl and the Pussy-Cat

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Even writing what amounts to his own obituary, with a letter sent to a friend shortly before his travels, he ends it, typically, Imagine how welcome such approval must have been to a young man who had sadly experienced little of this in his life to date. He went on to travel throughout Europe, writing and illustrating guides to various places, and these came to the attention of Queen Victoria. She was so impressed that she promptly employed Edward Lear as her drawing master. I remember this poem from my childhood, but it was not one of my favorites. However, this edition makes it shine. The story within the story really makes it work. There’s also sheet music included in the front of the book, composed by Douglas Colby.

They’re called classics for a reason. You know them, you’ve heard of them and some quite frankly I haven’t heard at all, but I assume there still classics to someone. Before reading this book I never considered nonsense poems or the closely related nursery rhymes to be a form of poetry but upon reflection they are quintessentially poems, matching all the characteristics of traditional poems but in their own nonsensical way. I must admit this is not the typical book for me to read, however I am pleasantly surprised by the quality of the poems outlined in the book. We first hear this refrain in "The Jumblies", and it is then echoed in "The Dong with a Luminous Nose", a poignant and mournful verse. Sad though it is, it is probably my personal favourite. Perhaps though, it is as well that it is followed by "The New Vestments"; such a silly piece of nonsense that it makes the reader laugh out loud. And small children will love the "rude" and funny picture in this book.For those adults - and some children - who find Lear's eccentric descriptions all but impossible to visualise, these illustrations are not only very attractive but also a great help with interpretation. Lear's sing-song language is easy and repetitive, the sound of his verse and his imagery will delight young children, yet his ideas are sometimes so ludicrous as to be unimaginable. Can you see a "runcible spoon" in your mind's eye? Or "The Dong with a Luminous Nose"? I couldn't - even though in this case Lear gives a detailed description of him - until I looked at the illustrations. Details of the 45 rpm record of Elton Hayes' recordings of Edward Lear songs". 45cat.com/ . Retrieved 7 October 2011. Lucy Larcom, ed. (February 1870). "The Owl and the Pussy-Cat". Our Young Folks. VI (II): 111–112 . Retrieved 5 August 2022.

The Owl and the Pussycat and other nonsense is a book of Edward Lear's eccentric and unique comic verse, published in 2012 to celebrate the bicentenary of the author's birth. It is lavishly illustrated with watercolour paintings by the Australian artist, Robert Ingpen. This is a happy combination, as Ingpen's depictions, based on Australian flora, seem to be a perfect fit for Lear's imagined Bong-tree Land. The Owl and the Pussycat is a classic nonsense poem by Edward Lear, and has long been one of my favourite books since I was a young child. There are many versions of the poem with different illustrations, but they are always beautiful to look at and really engaging for young readers. The poem is a love story between two anthropomorphic characters, the owl and the pussycat, and follows them as they get engaged and search for a ring. We meet various other silly characters throughout the poem, and none of it really makes any sense, which I think adds to its charm. Before publishing her own stories, Potter illustrated fables, fairy tales and classic texts, such as Uncle Remus, Alice in Wonderland and The Owl and the Pussy-cat. She drew largely to amuse herself, or children she knew, but also to develop her illustrative technique. Her interpretations of these well-known texts are always fresh, original, and faithful to the true nature and appearance of animals. Her depiction of Lear's pussy-cat, for example, derives from her own, sardonic sense of humour - typically, the cat appears to be more interested in the fish than in the owl's guitar playing. And every time I saw him after that he would say: ‘Lear’s such an interesting character, and no one’s done a book on this subject, and I think you’re the right one to do it.’ And so it was David who encouraged me to write this book.”

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That friend, of 30 years standing, was Attenborough: “I was at his house for dinner and I said ‘That’s the most beautiful painting of a possum I’ve ever seen. Who did it?’ And he said it was Edward Lear, and that nobody knows he was also an amazing and very important painter in natural history subjects. Jan Brett's illustrations, as always are colorful, well-rendered and quite lovely; and, as usual, somewhat jarring. That's what makes them so perfect for Edward Lear. Edward Lear's writings fall somewhere between Beatrix Potter and Hilaire Belloc.

When a story is short; I enjoy acquainting its authors, artists, and origin. I had never heard of “ The Owl And The Pussycat”, nor of Edward Lear. His inspiration for this odd titular pairing is as whimsical, as it is an enlightening explanation for quite a suite of factors that of course, are nonsense. Small birds are prey to cats, owls can carry small cats, and animals do not marry ceremoniously; never mind mingling species. It is a treat to learn from whence this came. I obtained it recently in a country thrift store, as a 1984 Canadian retelling by Canadian artist, Ron Berg. Visitors to Bong-tree land must be prepared to travel by sea for a year and a day from almost any port in England." In 1870 he published his most famous poem, The Owl and the Pussycat, with which he found his perfect niche. To the end of his days he commented on the world around him in a nonsensical style, referring most revealingly once to, The Owl and the Pussy Cat’ is the much loved children’s classic written by Edward Lear and the version I found in my library contains updated illustrations by Louise Voce. It follows the whimsical journey of the eponymous duo as they set to sea, get engaged and search for a ring.Most of the scientific illustration of that day, by other artists, was very stiff and essentially done from dead specimens. Lear insisted, whenever he possibly could, to work from live specimens. They are real character and personality portraits, as well as depictions of that species – you feel you’re meeting another living creature, that he saw very much on a human scale,” he said. Lear’s talent for illustration emerged at a young age: his first published work, when he was just 19 years old, was not a collection of poetry but an illustrated monograph on parrots that he had seen at London Zoo. The Owl and the Pussy-cat" features four anthropomorphic animals – an owl, a cat, a pig, and a turkey – and tells the story of the love between the title characters who marry in the land "where the Bong-tree grows". The Owl and the Pussy-cat" is a nonsense poem by Edward Lear, first published in 1870 in the American magazine Our Young Folks [1] and again the following year in Lear's own book Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany, and Alphabets. Lear wrote the poem for a three-year-old girl, Janet Symonds, the daughter of Lear's friend and fellow poet John Addington Symonds and his wife Catherine Symonds. The term " runcible", used for the phrase "runcible spoon", was invented for the poem. In 1996, Eric Idle published a children's novel, The Quite Remarkable Adventures of the Owl and the Pussycat, based on the poem. Idle's narriation of the audiobook was nominated for the 1998 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children. Humphrey Searle in 1951, using twelve-tone technique for the accompanying flute, guitar, and cello, but sprechgesang for the vocal part [5]