The Owl and the Pussy-cat
I
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!’
II
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.
III
‘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.
Source
of the text – Edward Lear, Edward Lear’s
Complete Nonsense. London: Folio
Society, 1996, pp. 75-77.
TJB: How charmingly sweet! Almost-nonsense, almost-quietist; easily memorized, never forgotten, this epithalamion-in-limericks is song—pure song.
No comments:
Post a Comment