Nonsense Verse for Children

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Cunningham, Virginia. Add-a-Rhyme. Garden City Publishing Co., Inc., 1941.

Nonsense poetry acknowledges the resilience, tenacity, identities, and independence of young people. The child who is wise beyond their years might ask, “What is not nonsense?” In what could be referred to as the liberation of young readers, nonsense as a literary form was popularized in the Victorian Age.

Most of us crave nonsense but are unsure exactly where to find it or how to embrace it. Children carry no such baggage. Delightfully impulsive, they run topsy-turvy towards the humor in any situation. Like the characters in Edward Lear’s “The Owl and the Pussy-Cat” (1871), young people may not know (or care) that some plan, some thing, or some experience is impossible. “They dined on mince, and slices of quince / Which they ate with a runcible spoon / And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand / They danced by the light of the moon.”

Known for placing humans, animals, and creatures into farcical situations and then leaving them to sort things out, Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) published his poem “Jabberwocky” (1871) in his novel Through the Looking-Glass. Inventor of the portmanteau, the nonsensical wordplay adds chaos and tension. “Twas brillig, and the slithy toves / Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; / All mimsy were the borogoves, / And the mome raths outgrabe.”

Illustrations play a collaborative role in nonsense verse through the double laugh—once for the words and again for the images. An early novel in verse disguised as a picture book, The Tale of Mr. Tootleoo (1925), takes the reader on a nonsensical journey with a jovial sailor who suffers shipwreck but does not drown. “Close at hand, upon my word, he found a Cockyolly bird.” After Mr. T is rescued by the Cockyolly, the story continues with a cloud, an island, a tree, an egg, and a happy ending. The book and its two sequels—Tootleoo Two (1927) and Mr. Tootleoo and Co. (1935)—were written by Bernard Darwin, grandson of naturalist Charles Darwin. A husband-and-wife collaboration, Elinor Darwin created the book’s whimsical lino print illustrations.

Prolific writer Laura Elizabeth Richards is credited as the first prominent American writer of nonsense verse for children. Tirra Lirra: Rhymes Old and New (1932) contains gems like “Eletelephony.” “Once there was an elephant, / Who tried to use the telephant – / No! No! I mean the elephone / Who tried to use the telephone –” The collection was reissued in 1955 with an introduction by May Hill Arbuthnot. A surge of nonsense verse for children occurred in the later part of the twentieth century. Jack Prelutsky translated a collection of German nonsense verse and published it as No End of Nonsense (1968); the work came out around the same time as the first of his own silly and fantastical poems. Shel Silverstein published his iconic book Where the Sidewalk Ends in 1974.

One reason that nonsense is attractive to young readers is its lack of nostalgia and sentimentality, both of which might be considered adult preoccupations. Nonsense is refreshingly straightforward. Therein lies the paradox of the absurd; a weary mind may find respite in laughter. Children know this truth instinctively. When grown-ups say, “I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time,” with arms wrapped around their waists and tears in their eyes, there resides, for a moment, an understanding of the power of nonsense. At some point, children are told to grow up and act their age. Nonsense is well-fitted armor against this crushing admonition. “More nonsense!” might be the battle cry that helps save us all.