Edward Lear

January's poet was Edward Lear. Aside from reading his works, we also spent some time learning about him. Edward Lear is largely considered the creator of the modern Limerick. I, personally, have loved limericks since I was first introduced to them, as a young girl. They are silly, irreverent, sometimes dirty, and always fun.

Edward Lear was born May 12, 1812 and died in 1888, at age 76. He was the twentieth of twenty-one children, and was raised mostly by his sister. He suffered from epilepsy, having his first seizure at age 5. As a young man, he spent 10 years traveling Europe and Asia, devoting his time to landscape painting. These are just a few of the interesting facts we learned about him this month.

To learn more about Edward Lear and his life, check out these links:

Poets.org
Edward Lear Homepage
Edward Lear: Victorian Trickster
Poetry Foundation

These are the books of poetry we read from in January:

A Book of Limericks Edward Lear (a Rare Reprint by Kessinger Publishing, originally published 1888)
There Was an Old Man... A Gallery of Nonsense Rhymes Edward Lear
nonsense Edward Lear
Behind the Museum Door: Poems to Celebrate the Wonders of Museums (nothing to do with Edward Lear, just some fun poems)
Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night (again, nothing to do with Lear, just fun poems)
The Owl and the Pussycat Edward Lear
The New Vestments Edward Lear
The Pelican Chorus and Other Nonsense Edward Lear
How Pleasant to Know Mr. Lear: Edward Lea's Selected Works Edward Lear
The Duck & the Kangaroo Edward Lear

To learn more about limericks try here:
Limericks 
Giggle Poetry
Poetry-Online