What do Edward Lear and Florence Nightingale have in Common?

 

Answer: It’s their birthday!

 

It’s May 12^th – the day we remember and honour poet and painter Edward Lear who was born on this day, 1812, in Highgate, North London. To mark his birthday, National Limerick Day is celebrated in the UK in tribute to this master of nonsense verse who popularised the form.

 

It is also International Nurses Day in honour of the birthday of the most famous nurse of all, Florence Nightingale. Florence was born 8 years after Edward Lear, on May 12^th, 1820, and went on to become the ‘Mother of Modern Nursing.’ Look at the date. It’s Florence’s 200^th birthday!

 

Both have fascinating life stories that make for really interesting biographies for children to read. With that in mind, I have put together a biography of Lear for you to share with your children, together with some follow-up questions and tasks. I include this in this post but it is available for download here. There is a wealth of rich vocabulary contained in the biography. Many of these words may be unfamiliar to your child and may require further exploration.

 

You may wish to challenge him/her to research Florence Nightingale and write a biography of their own for her. I have included some useful links and resources your child can use for research purposes. I also share some follow-up ideas for further exploration.

Edward Lear

 

 

 

Renowned poet and painter Edward Lear was born on May 12^th, 1812, in Highgate, North London.  He came from a very large family. Can you guess how many siblings he had? He was the penultimate of 21 children and was largely reared by his elder sister Ann.

 

Edward suffered from ill health. He was asthmatic and faced frequent bouts of bronchitis. At the age of 6, he had his first grand mal epileptic seizure which frightened and embarrassed him. Because of his epilepsy and asthma, Ann, and another sister, Sarah, educated Edward. They introduced him to sketching and colouring.

 

When Edward was thirteen, his father, a stockbroker, was sent to debtor’s prison, throwing the family into turmoil. Ann moved out, taking Edward with her, and he was forced to earn a living. By the age of 15, Edward was supporting himself through his drawing.

 

He then received a commission from the Zoological Society to draw the birds in London zoo. Whilst there, he met Lord Derby who invited him to make drawings of the menagerie on his Knowsley Estate. Edward went on to spend 4 years on the estate and was loved by Lord Derby’s grandchildren for whom he wrote little verses. He was one of the first artists to draw live birds and quickly gained a reputation for his skill. At 19, he published ‘Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots’ which was favourably received.

 

Sadly, Edward’s eyesight began to deteriorate and he was no longer able to work with the precision the fine drawings and etchings of plates used in lithography required. He then turned to travel and landscape painting. Edward visited many places, including Greece, Egypt, India, Italy and Switzerland, producing the wash drawings on which he later based his oil and watercolour paintings. Edward’s travel journals were published in several volumes as ’The Illustrated Travels of a Landscape Painter’ and were popular and well-respected.

 

Edward kept diaries. From these we learn he began to show signs of depression from around the age of 7. He referred to these periods of melancholy as “the morbids.” Given his chaotic childhood and his poor health, it is not surprising Edward found life tough at times.

 

Edward is known mostly for his literary nonsense in poetry, prose, and limericks. In 1846 Lear published A Book of Nonsense, a volume of limericks which popularised the form and the genre of literary nonsense. Limericks are very short, humorous, nonsense poems. They have five lines. The first, second and fifth rhyme with each other as do lines three and four. They also have a particular rhythm known as anapestic trimeter. Here is an example of one of Edward’s limericks:

 

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!’

 

In 1871 he published Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany and Alphabets, which included his most famous nonsense song, The Owl and the Pussycat, which he wrote for the children of his patron Edward Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby. Many other works followed including Laughable Lyrics in 1877.

 

Edward wrote several deeply fantastical poems about imaginary creatures, such as ‘The Dong with the Luminous Nose.’ Although quite different in subject and form, all of Edward Lear’s poems can be characterised by his irreverent worldview. He poked fun at everything, including himself. Some consider his works a means of challenging the orderliness and industriousness of Victorian society; others feel they were Edward’s way of dealing with that society and the challenges he faced. That’s not to say all of Edward’s works were lighthearted; indeed, they are characterised by a mix of humour and pathos – a mix of happiness and sadness.

 

One of the reasons Edward Lear’s works endure to this day is due to his verbal invention. He was a master of words, both real and invented, and his language choices enable the reader to use their imagination to make meaning. Consider ‘runcible’ from the ‘Owl and the Pussycat.’  There is no clue in the context as to what it means; thus, it means whatever the reader takes it to mean. 

 

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 Lear died on January 29, 1888 at the age of 76. At the time of his death, he was writing ‘The Scrrobious Pip’ – a tale of a fanciful creature other animals were attempting to classify. Several people have offered their completed versions of the poem. You can find some of those here.

 

I have but given a brief introduction to Lear that you might share with your children. His life though was fascinating indeed and that is captured in The New Yorker article by Adam Gopnik, ‘The Sense Beneath Edward Lear’s Nonsense’ which I recommend you read.

 

 

Questions: 

• How long ago is it since Edward Lear was born?

• What nationality was Edward Lear?

• What was his place in the family?

• What illnesses did Edward face?

• Who introduced him to colouring and sketching?

• Why was Edward forced to work at the age of 13?

• What was Edward’s first serious commission?

• What is the scientific name for the parrot family?

• Why was Edward forced to quit lithography?

• How did Edward refer to his periods of depression?

• What is Edward mostly remembered for today?

• If you were to teach someone about limericks, what information would you include for them? Can you write a limerick as an example for your lesson?

• Why do you think Edward Lear’s poems have endured?

• Identify 2 of Edward’s invented words.

• Several other writers have also invented words. Can you think of 2 examples of made-up words in poems or stories? Reference the story/poem and the writer.

 

 

 

Download Lear’s biography and these questions in our FREE PDF!

 

Learn more about the poetry of Edward Lear and his influence:

• This Guardian article features a Top 10 of Nonsense Words 

• Read Lear’s famous ‘Owl and the Pussycat’ here. Various animated versions are also available.(For example, here or here)

• To mark 200 years since Lear’s birth, author Julia Donaldson wrote ‘The Further Adventures of the Owl and the Pussy-cat.’ Hear her read an excerpt from it and enjoy lots of follow-up activities, across a range of subjects and themes, in this work pack. It is definitely worth a look. 

 

As today is National Limerick Day, I must include some recommendations for you to enjoy.

• Find Edward Lear’s limericks here on Family Friend Poems and on Nonsense Lit. Which one is your favourite? Can you illustrate it? You could draw or paint a picture or create an online poster on a site such as canva.

 

Here are some limericks from other writers:

• 10 quirky limericks from Reader’s Digest

• Find lots of limericks on Family Friendly Poems

• Why not try to write your own limerick? If you get stuck for writing ideas, you could try the poem generator.

 

 

 

Florence Nightingale

 

 

Much has been written about ‘the lady of the lamp’ with doubtless much more to follow on this her 200^th birthday. To support children in learning more about Florence, I include lots of references and resources below.

 

Learn more about Florence Nightingale on the following sites:

• Kiddle 

• National Geographic Kids

• The School Run offers a very comprehensive overview of Florence’s life, including a timeline and several useful links I also share below.

• Watch this Learn English Kids video all about her life.

• You might like to download this comprehensive resource pack.

 

As a follow up, an interesting discussion to have with children surrounds Florence’s characteristics and the lessons we learn from her. On this 200^th anniversary of her birth, it is not surprising some nursing organisations are doing just that.

 

• Here are 10 lessons learned from Florence Nightingale from the Journal of Nursing

• RCN honours her legacy in this piece. 

• Her legacy also forms the subject of this article in The Conversation.

 

So there you go, 2 people with significant legacies we honour to this day. I hope you find the resources useful and that they spark some interesting conversations in your home. 

 

Take care and stay safe all!

 

Image Sources: 

1 – Pixabay

2 & 7 – Credited. See links beneath each image.

3-6 – Dumond