There was an Old Man of Dunrose*;
A parrot seized hold of his nose.
When he grew melancholy, They said, “His name’s Polly,”
Which soothed that Old Man of Dunrose.
-Edward Lear: “More Nonsense, Pictures, Rhymes, Botany, etc.” (1872), ‘Twenty-Six Nonsense Rhymes and Pictures,’ page 253, limerick 7
*Dunrose: A fictional placename in the limerick poem that starts with the line, There Was An Old Man Of Dunrose, by Edward Lear. Mr. Lear created many odd and amusing names for places that do not exist, as well as using names of some real places, as rhyming elements for his limericks and nonsense poems.
A parrot seized hold of his nose.
When he grew melancholy, They said, “His name’s Polly,”
Which soothed that Old Man of Dunrose.
-Edward Lear: “More Nonsense, Pictures, Rhymes, Botany, etc.” (1872), ‘Twenty-Six Nonsense Rhymes and Pictures,’ page 253, limerick 7
*Dunrose: A fictional placename in the limerick poem that starts with the line, There Was An Old Man Of Dunrose, by Edward Lear. Mr. Lear created many odd and amusing names for places that do not exist, as well as using names of some real places, as rhyming elements for his limericks and nonsense poems.
