Edward Lear · Nonsense Songs

“The Owl and the Pussy-Cat went to sea”

Joy & wonder
The Owl and the Pussy-Cat went to seaIn a beautiful pea-green boat:They took some honey, and plenty of moneyWrapped 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!"
Edward LearNonsense Songs, 1871 · The Owl and the Pussy-cat
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Author
Edward Lear
Work
Nonsense Songs
Year
1871
Chapter / part
The Owl and the Pussy-cat
Length
64 words
Source
Project Gutenberg eBook #13647

Public domain. This passage is in the public domain. Edward Lear died in 1888, more than 70 years ago, and the work was first published in 1871. You can copy, print, read aloud or sell it without asking permission; a credit is kind but not required. The text is copied word for word from the Project Gutenberg edition linked here.

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Joy & wonder
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.
Edward LearNonsense Songs, 1871 · The Owl and the Pussy-cat
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Joy & wonder
My heart is like a singing birdWhose nest is in a water’d shoot;My heart is like an apple-treeWhose boughs are bent with thick-set fruit;My heart is like a rainbow shellThat paddles in a halcyon sea;My heart is gladder than all these,Because my love is come to me.
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My heart leaps up when I beholdA rainbow in the sky:So was it when my life began;So is it now I am a man;So be it when I shall grow old,Or let me die!The Child is father of the Man;And I could wish my days to beBound each to each by natural piety.
Joy & wonder
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star,Hath had elsewhere its setting,And cometh from afar:Not in entire forgetfulness,And not in utter nakedness,But trailing clouds of glory do we comeFrom God, who is our home:
William WordsworthOde: Intimations of Immortality, 1807
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