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Characteristics of Childhood Edward Lears Nonsense Verse Discussion

 

At first glance the Jumblies seem to be silly fantasy creatures which the poet has imagined, but the poet obviously finds something to admire in their silliness. In Lear’s Nonsense verse you read 10 limericks in which the habits and appearance of adults are made fun of for children readers. Let’s assume that this poem is also about the differences between adults and children. Let’s further assume that the adults are the Jumblies’ friends who bid them a worried goodbye at the beginning of the poem and welcome back the Jumblies at the end of the poem with “How tall they’ve grown.” If the friends are adults, then the Jumblies are Lear’s surrogates for children. These two assumptions lead the conclusion that the story of the Jumblies’s voyage is a celebration of childhood. What then are the characteristics of childhood that Lear depicts in the poem and finds delightful?