The Jumblies, and Other Nonsense Verses - Edward Lear

INTRODUCTORY.

Encouraged by the cordial reception extended by Press and Public to their issue of the “Pelican Chorus and Other Nonsense Verses by Edward Lear,” newly illustrated, the Publishers have requested the Artist, Mr. L. Leslie Brooke, to do a similar service for a further selection from Lear’s Nonsense Songs, thus practically completing them. In addition to “The Jumblies,” which has been adopted as the titular piece, this volume includes such prime favourites as “The Owl and the Pussy Cat,” “The Duck and the Kangaroo,” and “The Dong with a Luminous Nose.” For the benefit of those whose memories of the Nonsense Songs are not as fresh as they should be, it may be repeated that Mr. Lear did not illustrate them as fully as was his custom; some, indeed, had no drawings at all, and others merely a headpiece. The Publishers feel, therefore, that in re-issuing the songs adequately illustrated, they are but bringing them into line with Mr. Lear’s other works.

Oliver Wendell Holmes has said in a well-known poem, that—