nonsense poetry prelims three

Lear - there was an old man with a beard

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 home in my beard

Lear - there was an old person of ware

There was an Old Person of Ware,

Who rode on the back of a Bear;

When they ask'd, " Does it trot?"—

He said,

"Certainly not!

He's a Moppsikon Floppsikon Bear 1"

Lear - there was an old man of Whitehaven

There was an Old Man of Whitehaven,

who danced a quadrille with a Raven:

But they said,

they said it’s absurd to encourage this bird

So they smashed that old man of whitehaven

Lear - there was an old man who screamed out

There was an old man who screamed out

Whenever they knocked him about:

So they took off his boots, and fed him with fruits,

And continued to knock him about.

Lear - there was an old person of wick

There was an Old Person of Wick,

who said, "Tick-a-Tick, Tick-a-Tick ;

Chiekabee, Chiekabaw.*

And he said nothing more,

That laconic Old Person of Wick.

Lear - there was an old man of Spithead

There was an Old Man of Spithead,

Who opened the window and said,- " Fil-jomble, fil-jumble,

Fil-rumble-come-tumble ! "

That doubtful Old Man of Spithead

Lewis Carroll - first stanza of the jabberwocky

Twas brillig and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe

All mimsy were the borogroves

And the mome raths outgrabe

Carroll - last stanza of acrostic

Ever drifting down the stream

Lingering in the golden gleam

What is life but a dream?