The Owl and the Pussey cat went to sea
Submitted by Rebecca Filner on Thu, 09/16/2010 - 11:35amEdward Lear, British landscape painter and writer, wrote many limericks and "nonsenses" (as he called them) for children. One of his most famous nonsense poems is "The Owl and the Pussy-Cat," shown here in his hand.
Lear ends this copy of his humorous poem with a note that he "meant to have illustrated it, but there ain't time."
Although The Morgan does not have Lear's illustration of his poem, we do have a sketch of the poem by Beatrix Potter. In an 1897 letter to a young boy named Noel Moore, Potter draws him a "picture of the owl and the pussy cat after they were married."