the father of nonsense

Edward Lear (1812-1888), the British poet and painter known for his absurd wit, has been called "the father of nonsense" and wrote, what else but, The Complete Nonsense (a bind up of all his various nonsense: nonsense alphabets, nonsense botany, nonsense songs, nonsense stories, nonsense pitures, nonsense rhymes), which is the first book I remember reading all the way through. I was about 7 and adored it. I didn't know it was allowed. To speak and write such a load of nonsense like that. And get away with it. Get it in a book, even. And have it published. And he did the drawings too! (Lear of course gave us Quangle-Wangles, Pobbles, and Jumblies. And marvelous things like a runcible spoon.) Things have not been the same since. Of course I immediately set about writing and illustrating nonsense limericks like him. In Lear's limericks the first and last lines usually end with the same word rather than rhyming. And mostly they are well and truly utter nonsense and have no punch line or point whatsoever. Wonderful in other words. One limerick that isn't a Lear Limerick but is one of my all-time favorites: There was an old faith healer of Deale Who said "Though Pain isn't real When I sit on a pin and it's punctures my skin I don't like what I fancy I feel." In that one, the last line isn't a repeat of the first line and stronger as a result, I think. (When it's the same word, it has always felt to me like a bit of let down.) Here's one of my favorite Edward Lear Limericks: Do you have a favorite?