Sad Author of Funny Poetry: Edward Lear and Nonsense Poetry

Authors

  • Aliona Matiychak Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University, Ukraine

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31861/pytlit2013.87.007

Keywords:

Edward Lear, nonsense poetry, limerick, nonsense verse, poetic genre form, word-play, absurd stories, sense of humour, the ridiculous

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of Edward Lear’s art and literary works, in particular his nonsense poetry. The attention is drawn to E. Lear’s role in popularizing the limerick genre form in British and world poetry. The purpose of the article is to analyze humorous poems by Edward Lear in the aspect of genre study. The style of Lear’s versification (his short and silly poetic rhymes) is analyzed. The research of the style and genre specific of his nonsense verses (comic rhymes, puns, paronomasia, creativity in spelling, creating neologisms according to the principles of homophony, his weird creatures and absurd stories, etc.) is carried out. The influence of the poet’s personal features on his creativity is observed with reference to his drawings and illustrations. Psychological and biographical facts are considered in the research and allow understanding the poet’s world outlook.

Author Biography

Aliona Matiychak, Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University

Department of Foreign Languages for Humanitarian Colleges Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University 2 Kotsiubynskiy Street, 58012, Chernivtsi, Ukraine

References

Lear Edward. Nebylytsi [A Book of Nonsense]. Kyiv, 1989, 220 p. (in Ukrainian).

Literaturoznavcha entsyklopediia [Encyclopaedia of literary criticism], avtor-ukladach Iu. I. Kovaliv. Kyiv, 2007, vol. 1, 608 p. (in Ukrainian).

Biography of Edward Lear. Available at: http://www.poemhunter.com/edward-lear/biography/ (accessed 12 September 2012).

Chitty S. That Singular Person Called Lear: A Biography of Edward Lear, Artist, Traveller and Prince of Nonsense. New York, 1988, 305 p.

Edward Lear. Available at: http://www.edward-lear.com/AALearpage.htm (accessed 12 September 2012).

Edward Lear: Biography. Available at: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/edward-lear (accessed 12 September 2012).

Lear E. Nonsense Books. Available at: http://www.bencourtney.com/ebooks/lear/ (accessed 12 September 2012).

Lear E. Teapots and Quails. Cambridge, 1953, 63 p.

Noakes V. Edward Lear: Life of a Wanderer. Boston, 1969, 359 p.

Rozzo M. The height of nonsense. In: Los Angeles Times/ Book Review, January 05, 2003.

Snider Cl. Edward Lear: Victorian Trickster. Available at: http://www.csulb.edu/~csnider/edward.lear.html (accessed 12 September 2012).

Tovey B. Higher-cynths, lower-cynths, and Seeze Pyders: why Lear’s ‘nonsense’ language is more than just fun. Available at: http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2012/05/lears-nonsense-language/ (accessed 12 September 2012).

Downloads

Published

2013-09-03

How to Cite

Matiychak, A. “Sad Author of Funny Poetry: Edward Lear and Nonsense Poetry”. Pitannâ lìteraturoznavstva, no. 87, Sept. 2013, pp. 7-17, doi:10.31861/pytlit2013.87.007.

Issue

No. 87 (2013)

Section

Anniversaries

License

Copyright (c) 2013 Aliona Matiychak

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.