The Owl and the Pussycat
by Edward Lear
English (1812 - 1888)
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.
The Children of the Owl
and the Pussycat
(Unfinished)
by Edward Lear
Our mother was the Pussy-cat,
our father was the Owl,
And so we're partly little
beasts and partly little fowl,
The brothers of our family
have feathers and they hoot,
While all the sisters dress
in fur and have long tails to boot.
We all
believe that little mice,
For food are singularly
nice.
Our mother died long years
ago. She was a lovely cat
Her tail was 5 feet long,
and grey with stripes, but what of that?
In Sila forest on the East
of fair Calabria's shore
She tumbled from a lofty tree
-- none ever saw her more.
Our owly father long was ill
from sorrow and surprise,
But with the feathers of his
tail he wiped his weeping eyes.
And in the hollow of a tree
in Sila's inmost maze
We made a happy home and there
we pass our obvious days.
From Reggian Cosenza many owls
about us flit
And bring us worldly news
for which we do not care a bit.
We watch the sun each morning
rise, beyond Tarento's strait;
We go out before it gets too
late;
And when the evening shades
begin to lengthen from the trees
as sure as bees is bees.
We wander up and down the
shore
Or tumble over head and heels,
but never, never more
Can see the far Gromboolian
plains
Or weep as we could once have
wept o'er many a vanished scene:
This is the way our father
moans -- he is so very green.
Our father still preserves
his voice, and when he sees a star
He often sings to that original
guitar.
The pot in which our parents
took the honey in their boat,
But all the money has been
spent, beside the £5 note.
The owls who come and bring
us nows are often ------
Because we take no interest
in poltix of the day.)
[from The Faber Book of Nonsense
Verse, edited by
Geoffrey Grigson; first published
in 1938 in
Davidson's Edward Lear.]
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~*~
Illustrations by Jan
Brett
The Owl and the Pussycat
copyright 1991 by G.
P. Putnam's Sons
200 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10016
821.8 - dc20 90-32244 ISBN 0-399-21925-0