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On the 29th of January 1888 Edward Lear died. He was an English artist, illustrator and writer known for his literary nonsense, in poetry and prose, and especially his limericks, a form which he popularised.
He was born in Highgate, a suburb of London, on the 12th May 1812 and was the 20th child of Ann and Jeremiah Lear. He was raised by his eldest sister, Ann, twenty-one years his senior.
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He travelled widely in his life and died in San Remo, Italy
In 1846 Lear published A Book of Nonsense, a volume of limericks, which went through three editions and in 1867 his most famous piece of nonsense, The Owl and the Pussycat。It begins like this:
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 limerick, which he made famous, is a short five-line poem. They usually start with the line "There was a young or old man or woman from some place or other."
For example here is one of Edward Lear's:
There was an Old Man with a beard,
Who said, "It is just as I feared!
Two Owls and a Hen,
Four Larks and a Wren,
Have all built their nests in my beard!"
And here is one from in2english:
"There was a young man from Beijing,
Who was told that he never would sing,
He tried and he tried
Until the day that he died
But the only sound he produced was a "ping!"
Why don't you try and write one!
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