Curated OER
Edward Lear, Limericks, and Nonsense
Introduce your class to the delights of nonsense poetry and explore literary devices with the writing of Edward Lear. Learners identify rhyme and meter as well as figures of speech, alliteration, and onomatopoeia in "The Owl and the...
Curated OER
Edward Lear, Limericks, and Nonsense: There Once Was?
Students explore limericks. In this poetry writing lesson, students listen to and read a variety of poems written by Edward Lear. Students count syllables and identify meter by clapping as they read aloud. Students complete a limerick...
Curated OER
Edward Lear, Limericks, and Nonsense: There Once Was...
Students recognize poetic devices including rhyme, syllabification, and meter. They identify the characteristics of a nonsense poem and of a limerick. They write their own limericks.
Poetry Society
The Jumblies
Who would ever think to go to sea in a sieve? Only Edward Lear's Jumblies! The poem "The Jumblies" is the inspiration for these poetry reading and writing activities that ask learners to think about how strangers are different, consider...
DLTK
Writing Limericks
Scholars are lucky to stretch their poetry writing muscles with a worksheet that challenges them to compose two limericks—one about a boy and the other about a dog.
Curated OER
Poetry
Explore the semantics of poetry with this higher-level presentation. With examples from Dickinson, Frost, and Dr. Seuss, the slides clearly explain the details of poetic structure, license, and schemes. You could use this in a language...
Poetry4kids
How to Write a Traditional “Mother Goose” Nursery Rhyme
There may be some little lambs, itsy bitsy spiders, and pumpkin eaters in your language arts class! An online poetry lesson takes learners through the steps of writing a nursery rhyme with easy-to-follow steps and explanatory examples.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Edward Lear, Limericks, and Nonsense: A Little Nonsense
In this lesson plan, students will consider Edward Lear, Limericks, and Nonsense: A Little Nonsense. Worksheets and other supporting materials can be found under the Resources tab.
Academy of American Poets
Poets.org: Edward Lear
Resource provides a brief biographical overview of Edward Lear including information on his life and links to selected poems. A column of links to additional reading information on Lear is also provided.
University of Florida
Baldwin Library: More Nonsense by Edward Lear
This is an online photocopy of the original text of the children's book More Nonsense by Edward Lear (1888), a book of illustrated nonsense limerick poems.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: There Once Was...
Part 2 of this tutorial on limerick writing demonstrates the importance of form (meter and rhyme) in limerick poetry using the exemplary and amusing work of Edward Lear.
University of Florida
Baldwin Library: Lear's Book of Nonsense
A scanned copy of the 1880 publication of Lear's Book of Nonsense by Edward Lear, a book of children's poetry.
University of Florida
Baldwin Library: A Book of Nonsense
A scanned copy of the 1875 publication of A Book of Nonsense by Edward Lear, a book of poetry for children.