![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiGHdBtW0G15dCmJYbGbW8wGEjSq-CbNpw3sNnNOAnu8LXQHoKpq9G0yrac6KuE0ncKODQttlXhJUdB3L5lCm1n3m6FBU9Lc4mgBwoAPUC_CMlkQabN11scuYmb4MtbJNcvGqaBrIf0-0/s400/lear1.jpg)
This writer of nonsense did worse:
He championed limerick verse
His wordplay and rhyme
ahead of his time
has left me a terrible curse
Happy birthday, Edward Lear. Lear's 1846 volume A Book of Nonsense popularized the limerick as a form of poetry. His most famous piece of nonsense is The Owl and the Pussycat. Both the limericks and illustrations at the top and which follow are all by Lear. I thought the first limerick might be hard to read, so I've transcribed it here:
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!"![nonsense pictures](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_u8Me-UXAmmnVNEwMruREwSIKjyR7vBLs5VdZbvhvMv92JuK5y1dxwzPatL3l5Xouhjdcjrl-LdKdf41zMkWvheQPz88jw-qfDHt1v3-xnXiyf5uGG1WuKm8uk2WK9T=s0-d)
There was an Old Man of the Coast,
Who placidly sat on a post;
But when it was cold he relinquished his hold,
And called for some hot buttered toast.
![nonsense pictures](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_swRUnR_EdTg4a9hiD1uPFPfhy6gq6jKpbMycBWg784zWbBxjWoMV9SIyKovWwHjcysYyO69p9A97JadVsTwfu8J4bbMLB_iXwq8v8shWcjuRKVKSLfTrsTV8aveya-=s0-d)
There was an Old Man on some rocks,
Who shut his Wife up in a box:
When she said, "Let me out," he exclaimed, "Without doubt
You will pass all your life in that box."