L

 

[L]

 

L was a light which burned all the night

and lighted the gloom of a very dark room.

 

L was Lear who wrote without fear

inventing new words strictly for the birds.

 

L was for London all of a sudden

that in a fit said it’s best to flit.

 

L was landscapes, large romantic shapes

sympathetic, with parrots alphabetic.

 

L was laureate, to whit counter-laureate

his In Memoriam a pea-green gloriam.

 

L was for limerick, simple trick

that in a stroke makes a million jokes.

 

L was Liguria, curious curiouser

departed alone but by all, well-known. 

 

The image is Edward Lear’s watercolour of the red-sided parrot (Eclectus Roratus Polychloros) made circa 1830-32. More history about this painting is here: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/363843  

 

 

Lear (July)

Edward Lear went south in search of warmth, but wound up unexpectedly in Sassafras, in July, the bleak midwinter. Great fanning ferntrees hold together amidst fog finally lifting above gullies. Perhaps he lost his way on purpose. It’s a long way from his classical landscapes. Or maybe not. Foreground figures tramp muddy tracks as if stumbling upon Arcady. He composed upon the occasion: “There is a man of Sassafras / Whose every second word’s ‘Alas!’ / One more fit / And he will quit / That fitful man of Sassafras.” It takes up the entire picture wall of Humpty House.