Poetry and Art, Edward lear

How pleasant to know Mr. Lear
a poem by Edward Lear

How pleasant to know Mr. Lear,
Who has written such volumes of stuff.
Some think him ill-tempered and queer,
But a few find him pleasant enough.

His mind is concrete and fastidious,
His nose is remarkably big;
His visage is more or less hideous,
His beard it resembles a wig.

He has ears, and two eyes, and ten fingers,
(Leastways if you reckon two thumbs);
He used to be one of the singers,
But now he is one of the dumbs.

He sits in a beautiful parlour,
With hundreds of books on the wall;
He drinks a great deal of marsala,
But never gets tipsy at all.

He has many friends, laymen and clerical,
Old Foss is the name of his cat;
His body is perfectly spherical,
He weareth a runcible hat.

When he walks in waterproof white,
The children run after him so!
Calling out, "He's gone out in his night-
Gown, that crazy old Englishman, oh!"

He weeps by the side of the ocean,
He weeps on the top of the hill;
He purchases pancakes and lotion,
And chocolate shrimps from the mill.

He reads, but he does not speak, Spanish,
He cannot abide ginger beer;
Ere the days of his pilgrimage vanish,
How pleasant to know Mr. Lear!
 

Edward Lear
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born 12 May 1812 Holloway, England
Died 29 January 1888 (aged 75) Sanremo, Italy

Edward Lear was an English artist, illustrator, author, and poet, renowned today primarily for his literary nonsense, in poetry and prose, and especially his limericks, a form that he popularised.Lear was born into a middle-class family in the village of Holloway, the 21st child of Ann and Jeremiah Lear. He was raised by his eldest sister, also named Ann, 21 years his senior. Ann doted on Lear and continued to mother him until her death, when Lear was almost 50 years of age. Due to the family's failing financial fortune, at age four he and his sister had to leave the family home and set up house together.

Largely self-educated, Lear has been described as idiosyncratic yet brilliantly talented. Lear also suffered from health issues. From the age of six he suffered frequent grand mal epileptic seizures, and bronchitis, asthma, and in later life, partial blindness. Lear experienced his first seizure at a fair near Highgate with his father. The event scared and embarrassed him. Lear felt lifelong guilt and shame for his epileptic condition. His adult diaries indicate that he always sensed the onset of a seizure in time to remove himself from public view. How Lear was able to anticipate them is not known, but many people with epilepsy report a ringing in their ears or an "aura" before the onset of a seizure. In Lear's time epilepsy was believed to be associated with demonic possession, which contributed to his feelings of guilt and loneliness. When Lear was about seven he began to show signs of depression, possibly due to the constant instability of his childhood. He suffered from periods of severe depression which he referred to as "the Morbids."

Lear travelled widely throughout his life and eventually settled in Sanremo, on his beloved Mediterranean coast, in the 1870s, at a villa he named "Villa Tennyson." The closest he came to marriage was two proposals, both to the same woman 46 years his junior, which were not accepted. For companions he relied instead on a circle of friends and correspondents, and especially, in later life, on his Suliot chef, Giorgis, a faithful friend and, as Lear complained, a thoroughly unsatisfactory chef. Another trusted companion in Sanremo was his cat, Foss, who died in 1886 and was buried with some ceremony in a garden at Villa Tennyson. After a long decline in his health, Lear died at his villa in 1888, of the heart disease from which he had suffered since at least 1870. Lear's funeral was said to be a sad, lonely affair by the wife of Dr. Hassall, Lear's physician, not one of Lear's many lifelong friends being able to attend.

delete reply aimlessjoys wrote on Jan 20, '10, edited on Jan 20, '10 A very interesting topic indeed. Something I found out is there is a beautiful blue parrot named after the remarkable Mr. Lear, Lear's Macaw: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lear%27s_Macaw Lear started out doing beautifully detailed watercolor illustrations of birds & animals, quite a lot of them, & splendid, too. He even gave drawing lessons to Queen V herself! I love this one, the Eagle Owl: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Eagleowl.jpg Thanks for sharing his bio, & it does sound like that sister could have been his mother to me, too. Such things were not uncommon, I've been told. Great grist for the mill, eh? Thanks, Loretta!

delete reply stillwandering wrote on Jan 20, '10, edited on Jan 20, '10 I've always loved him too, one of my favourites ~ I am a big fan of nonsense!

delete reply mitchylr wrote on Jan 19, '10 I've always been a fan of his work. Thanks for the interesting biography.

edit delete reply forgetmenot525 wrote on Jan 19, '10 bennett1 said I mean I think his ok................I see what you mean, but I'm not so sure. It was not uncommon for women to have huge numbers of children, usually not all babies survived to adulthood but women did often spend 20 years or so bearing children. The fact that his mother died when he was a baby (evidence is that mother had 21 babies and there was 21 years difference between the eldest and youngest) indicates that she probobly died in child birth, a common cause of death at that time. If this were the case, the role of raising the child would fall to the eldest girl. I think possibly if we were talking about 1912 rather than 1812, or any time up to about the 1960's, then possibly she would have been the mother, but I think in 1812 it is more likely that Ann was in fact his sister..................but of course this is all speculation, in reality.............we can't know can we?? unless of course you know something i don't know?? lol

delete reply bennett1 wrote on Jan 19, '10 I mean I think his "sister" Ann was his mother.

edit delete reply forgetmenot525 wrote on Jan 19, '10, edited on Jan 19, '10 bennett1 said m I the only person who finds this - odd? Sorry Bennett................I should have been more careful when taking bits from the net.............the biography is a mix of bits from the net, bits from books etc should have known you would pick up any oddities. Guess it gives a general 'flavour' of the rather eccentric person he was even if the grammer etc isn't what it should be. In fact...............I actually wrote this some time last week and posted it as a draft, think senility is setting in cos can't remember where I found most of it.............sigh.............oh dear

delete reply lrrpslady wrote on Jan 19, '10 Very interesting Loretta. I had no idea. So sad he died and was buried alone.

delete reply alineta wrote on Jan 19, '10 What a touching story of the great man. Thank you. Due to your post I have just opened the site to get more information about that remarkable man.

delete reply bennett1 wrote on Jan 19, '10 forgetmenot525 said He was raised by his eldest sister, also named Ann, 21 years his senior. Ann doted on Lear and continued to mother him until her death, when Lear was almost 50 years of age. Am I the only person who finds this - odd? A fascinating biography of a interesting man. Many thanks, Loretta