Friday, June 24, 2011

old salts and sea froth

Despite the unseasonable winter's morn and stormy day, this learish nonsense goes well with a beach vacation. Go on, stand up and declaim it out loud!

The Jumblies (excerpt)
by Edward Lear

They went to sea in a Sieve, they did,
In a Sieve they went to sea:
In spite of all their friends could say,
On a winter's morn, on a stormy day,
In a Sieve they went to sea!
And when the Sieve turned round and round,
And every one cried, 'You'll all be drowned!'
They called aloud, 'Our Sieve ain't big,
In a Sieve we'll go to sea!'
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.

You can enjoy all six stanzas and a lot of other Lear here. For more Poetry Friday froth go to Carol's Corner.


  1. Hope you guys have a good time at the beach!

  2. Huzzah for the sea and the sieve!

    Have fun and stay warm!

  3. Out here in Seattle, the weather has been so bad I'm ready to take a lesson from Lear, stand up, shake my fist at the stormy weather and shout, "We don't care a button! We don't care a fig!"

    Hope if/when you get to the beach, the sun is shining, Heidi!

  4. even as a kid i wondered how lear came up with the images he did. tiny people traveling the sea in a sieve?

    they did, they did!

    and in the face of all those who say "impossible!" lear knows otherwise.

    thanks for the reminder. enjoy that beach!

  5. So happy to see Lear here. He is underrated. As a writer, I always relate to his half-craziness!


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