Silly Poetry Friday 3

What time is it? Why it's Silly Poetry time, of course! Apologies for posting late today – I had to finish up a special project before I tackled anything else. But I'm here now, and I'm silly! Who's with me?

Today's silly poem is very, very special to me. I adore the nonsense writing of Edward Lear, and The Jumblies is my favourite Lear poem, even more than The Owl and The Pussy-Cat. The first time I ever heard The Jumblies (and yes, I heard it the first time, as opposed to reading it) I was actually watching television, many years ago. Instead of enduring yet another annoying ad, I was introduced to a National Film Board short film. Some gentleman with a deep and haunting voice recited The Jumblies, while magical old images of stamps moved across the screen. I was mesmerized. The poem terrified me to my very core. And when the narrator said the words "the hills of the Chankly Bore!" chills went up and down my spine. Who wrote this poem? I had to find out! So did I run to the nearest library (this was before Google, remember) and search my little heart out? Nah. I asked Mom, the walking encyclopaedia. "It's the Jumblies, silly. Didn't you learn that in school?" Mom uses that line on me a lot. "What do you mean you don't know what Tabula Rasa means? Didn't you learn Latin in school?" "Uhhh...Mom...I don't think they've taught Latin in public schools for a long time"...but I digress. Anyway, has anyone else seen that film?

Now please bear with me with this poem post, because The Jumblies is quite long, and I'm going to be self-indulgent (or shall I say even more self-indulgent than I usually am as a blogger) and post collage images I created while  I was a student in graphic design school.  For one of my art projects I decided to make a little illustrated book of the poem The Jumblies, using mostly images from old magazines. And yes, I know I posted some of these images on my blog a couple years ago, but so what. It's my blog!

Ok. Enough yapping. Behold The Jumblies.

THE JUMBLIES

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,
But we don't care a button! we don't care a fig!
  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.



They sailed away in a Sieve, they did,
  In a Sieve they sailed so fast,
With only a beautiful pea-green veil
Tied with a riband by way of a sail,
  To a small tobacco-pipe mast;
And every one said, who saw them go,
`O won't they be soon upset, you know!
For the sky is dark, and the voyage is long,
And happen what may, it's extremely wrong
  In a Sieve to sail so fast!'
    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.



The water it soon came in, it did,
  The water it soon came in;
So to keep them dry, they wrapped their feet
In a pinky paper all folded neat,
  And they fastened it down with a pin.
And they passed the night in a crockery-jar,
And each of them said, `How wise we are!
Though the sky be dark, and the voyage be long,
Yet we never can think we were rash or wrong,
  While round in our Sieve we spin!'
    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.

And all night long they sailed away;
  And when the sun went down,
They whistled and warbled a moony song
To the echoing sound of a coppery gong,
  In the shade of the mountains brown.
`O Timballo!  How happy we are,
When we live in a Sieve and a crockery-jar,
And all night long in the moonlight pale,
We sail away with a pea-green sail,
  In the shade of the mountains brown!'
    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.

They sailed to the Western Sea, they did,
  To a land all covered with trees,
And they bought an Owl, and a useful Cart,
And a pound of Rice, and a Cranberry Tart,
  And a hive of silvery Bees.
And they bought a Pig, and some green Jack-daws,
And a lovely Monkey with lollipop paws,
And forty bottles of Ring-Bo-Ree,
  And no end of Stilton Cheese.
    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.



And in twenty years they all came back,
  In twenty years or more,
And every one said, `How tall they've grown!
For they've been to the Lakes, and the Torrible Zone,
  And the hills of the Chankly Bore!'
And they drank their health, and gave them a feast
Of dumplings made of beautiful yeast;
And every one said, `If we only live,
We too will go to sea in a Sieve,---
  To the hills of the Chankly Bore!'
    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.

Comments

[Imani]

There's a huuuuuuuuge early edition of a Complete Lear collection at a local used store which I covet. Everytime I go there I check to make sure it's still there, saving, saving.

I read "The Jumblies" for the first time in an abandoned nonsense verse book that I discovered in one of the old piano rooms at school. Finders, keepers!

[Beth]

I'm glad they all came back safely.
This poem - and your collages - would have terrified me as a kid.
(Your collages are that good...)

[Heather (errantdreams)]

I've heard this set to music by Jim's Big Ego. Very cool. :)