Edward Lear

The Owl and the Pussy-cat

HE Owl and the Pussy-Cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea-green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money

five-pound note

A £5 note in 1871 equals roughly £500 today—serious traveling money. Lear signals this is a proper elopement, not a day trip.

 Wrapped up in a five-pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
 And sang to a small guitar,

small guitar

Owls can't hold guitars. Lear's illustrations show the Owl playing it with wings—he draws the absurdity he won't explain in words.

"O lovely Pussy! O Pussy, my love,
 What a beautiful Pussy you are,
You are,
You are!
 What a beautiful Pussy you are!"
II.
Pussy said to the Owl, "You elegant fowl!
How charmingly sweet you sing!
O let us be married! too long we have tarried:
But what shall we do for a ring?"

year and a day

Legal formula from English common law—the minimum period for contracts and handfasting marriages. Makes their voyage formally binding.

They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the Bong-tree grows

Bong-tree grows

Lear invented this tree. No explanation, no description—it exists because the poem needs it to exist.

And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
With a ring at the end of his nose,
His nose,
His nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.
III.

one shilling

They have £5 but haggle the pig down to one shilling (1/100th of their cash). The politeness matters more than the economics.

"Dear pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling
Your ring?" Said the Piggy, "I will."
So they took it away, and were married next day
By the Turkey who lives on the hill.

Turkey who lives

The Turkey is a justice of the peace. In Victorian England, any respectable local figure could perform marriages—Lear just made him a bird.

They dinèd on mince, and slices of quince,

runcible spoon

Lear invented this word. It appeared in several of his poems but he never defined it. Later manufacturers created spork-like utensils and called them runcible spoons.

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.
HE 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.

five-pound note

A £5 note in 1871 equals roughly £500 today—serious traveling money. Lear signals this is a proper elopement, not a day trip.

The Owl looked up to the stars above,

small guitar

Owls can't hold guitars. Lear's illustrations show the Owl playing it with wings—he draws the absurdity he won't explain in words.

 And sang to a small guitar,
"O lovely Pussy! O Pussy, my love,
 What a beautiful Pussy you are,
You are,
You are!
 What a beautiful Pussy you are!"
Pussy said to the Owl, "You elegant fowl!
How charmingly sweet you sing!
O let us be married! too long we have tarried:
But what shall we do for a ring?"
They sailed away, for a year and a day,

year and a day

Legal formula from English common law—the minimum period for contracts and handfasting marriages. Makes their voyage formally binding.

Bong-tree grows

Lear invented this tree. No explanation, no description—it exists because the poem needs it to exist.

To the land where the Bong-tree grows
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
With a ring at the end of his nose,
His nose,
His nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.
"Dear pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling

one shilling

They have £5 but haggle the pig down to one shilling (1/100th of their cash). The politeness matters more than the economics.

Your ring?" Said the Piggy, "I will."
So they took it away, and were married next day

Turkey who lives

The Turkey is a justice of the peace. In Victorian England, any respectable local figure could perform marriages—Lear just made him a bird.

By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
They dinèd on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;

runcible spoon

Lear invented this word. It appeared in several of his poems but he never defined it. Later manufacturers created spork-like utensils and called them runcible spoons.

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.
Source Wikipedia Poetry Foundation

Reading Notes

Lear's Nonsense Method

Lear published this in 1871 in *Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany, and Alphabets*, but the technique is specific: he treats impossible things with absolute seriousness. The Owl and Cat don't acknowledge that their romance is strange—they worry about practical problems like finding a ring. The poem never winks at the reader.

Notice what Lear *doesn't* explain: why a pea-green boat, why the Bong-tree grows where it does, what makes a spoon runcible. Nonsense literature (a genre Lear essentially invented) works by internal consistency, not real-world logic. The rules are: animals can talk and marry, certain trees and utensils exist, and you need proper currency for travel.

The repetition structure—"His nose, / His nose, / His nose"—mimics children's songs, but Lear uses it for emphasis, not cuteness. Each repeated phrase marks a moment of wonder: the Pussy's beauty, the pig's nose-ring, the moon over the beach. The poem builds to marriage, not through conflict but through patient problem-solving.

What Lear Invented

Runcible spoon entered English as a real term because of this poem. Lear used "runcible" in other works ("runcible cat," "runcible hat") but never defined it—the sound mattered more than meaning. By the 1920s, manufacturers were selling three-pronged spork-like utensils as "runcible spoons."

The Bong-tree is pure invention, appearing nowhere else in literature or botany. Lear was a serious botanical illustrator (he drew for John Gould's bird books), so the fake precision is deliberate. He knows what real taxonomy sounds like.

"Year and a day" is the only phrase with historical roots—English common law used this period for contracts, land transfers, and handfasting (trial marriages). Lear smuggles legal language into a fantasy, making the voyage feel ceremonial and binding.