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"There was..." (A Little Festival of Lear Limericks)

Song Cycle by Cecil Armstrong Gibbs (1889 - 1960)

?. There was an old man of the Isles  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
There was an old man of the Isles,
Whose face was pervaded with smiles;
He sang "High dum diddle",
And played on the fiddle,
That amiable man of the Isles.

Text Authorship:

  • by Edward Lear (1812 - 1888), as Derry Down Derry, no title, appears in A Book of Nonsense, first published 1846

See other settings of this text.

Researcher for this page: Ted Perry

?. Homage  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
How pleasant to know Mr. Lear,
Who has written such volumes of stuff.
Some think him ill-tempered and queer,
But a few find him pleasant enough.

His mind is concrete and fastidious,
His nose is remarkably big;
His visage is more or less hideous,
His beard it resembles a wig.

He has ears, and two eyes, and ten fingers,
(Leastways if you reckon two thumbs);
He used to be one of the singers,
But now he is one of the dumbs.

He sits in a beautiful parlour,
With hundreds of books on the wall;
He drinks a great deal of marsala,
But never gets tipsy at all.

He has many friends, laymen and clerical,
Old Foss is the name of his cat;
His body is perfectly spherical,
He weareth a runcible hat.

When he walks in waterproof white,
The children run after him so!
Calling out, "He's gone out in his night-
Gown, that crazy old Englishman, oh!"

He weeps by the side of the ocean,
He weeps on the top of the hill;
He purchases pancakes and lotion,
And chocolate shrimps from the mill.

He reads, but he does not speak, Spanish,
He cannot abide ginger beer;
Ere the days of his pilgrimage vanish,
How pleasant to know Mr. Lear!

Text Authorship:

  • by Edward Lear (1812 - 1888), "By Way of Preface", appears in Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany, and Alphabets, first published 1888

See other settings of this text.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

?. There was an Old Man with a gong  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
There was an Old Man with a gong,
Who bumped at it all day long;
But they called out, 'O law!
You're a horrid old bore!'
So they smashed that Old Man with a gong.

Text Authorship:

  • by Edward Lear (1812 - 1888), no title, appears in A Book of Nonsense, first published 1861

See other settings of this text.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Total word count: 276
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