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by Edward Lear (1812 - 1888)

How pleasant to know Mr. Lear
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!

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • by Edward Lear (1812 - 1888), "By Way of Preface", appears in Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany, and Alphabets, first published 1888 [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Gary Bachlund (b. 1947), "How pleasant to know Mr. Lear", 2008 [ medium voice or high voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Martin Best , "By Way of Preface", <<1976 [ voice and guitar ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Cecil Armstrong Gibbs (1889 - 1960), "Homage", 1970, rev. 1974 [ 2-part chorus of treble voices, strings, descant recorder, trumpet, percussion, and piano ], from "There was..." (A Little Festival of Lear Limericks) [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Edwin Roxburgh (b. 1937), "How pleasant to know Mr. Lear", published 1972 [ narrator ], from How Pleasant to Know Mr. Lear, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2009-03-06
Line count: 32
Word count: 211

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