The Owl and the Pussycat - a Bit of Nonsense

Here we are at the weekend again, so let’s celebrate with a bit of nonsense! Today I want to share with you one of my favourite poems ever – The Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear. I came across this poem for the first time when I was about seven years old and loved it – and still do to this day!   

The Owl and the Pussy Cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea-green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money
Wrapped up in a five-pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
And sang to a small guitar,
"O lovely Pussy, O Pussy, my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are,
You are,
You are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are!"

Pussy said to the Owl, "You elegant fowl!
How charmingly sweet you sing!
O let us be married! too long we have tarried:
But what shall we do for a ring?"
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the Bong-tree grows
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
With a ring at the end of his nose,
His nose,
His nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.

"Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling
Your ring?" Said the Piggy, "I will."
So they took it away, and were married next day
By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
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 author of this marvelous work Edward Lear (1812 – 1888) was an artist and an illustrator as well as an author and poet. However he is best known for his “literary nonsense” especially his limericks. Indeed in 1946 he published “A Book Of Nonsense” which was a volume of limericks, including:

There was an Old Man with a nose,                                      
Who said, 'If you choose to suppose,
That my nose is too long,    

                                                   
You are certainly wrong!'
That remarkable Man with a nose.

Pure nonsense and pure brilliance! He illustrated his own work which as you can see adds to the comical notion.

In his work Lear used both real and imaginary words to great effect. In the Owl and the Pussycat he talks of the characters dining and eating with a “runcible” spoon. This is an example of one of Lear’s made up words. There is no absolute definition of what is meant by the word runcible but it appears in other of Lear’s works when he talks of a “runcible” hat, a “runcible” cat, a “runcible” goose and a “runcible” wall. Modern dictionaries have offered different definitions, but personally I quite like that this word can mean whatever you want it to. It must be remembered that Lear wrote for children and maybe the magic of his work can be best understood in the imagination of the young!

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