A collection of over 100 limericks with the author's original illustrations.

Essays and critical writings on contemporary poetry by Stephen Burt, "the finest critic of his generation" (Lucie Brock-Broido) Stephen Burt's Close Calls with Nonsense provokes readers into the elliptical worlds of Rae Armantrout, Paul Muldoon, C. D. Wright, and other contemporary poets whose complexities make them challenging, original, and, finally, readable. Burt's intelligence and enthusiasm introduce both tentative and longtime poetry readers to the rewards of reading new poetry. As Burt writes in the title essay: "The poets I know don't want to be famous people half so much as they want their best poems read; I want to help you find and read them. I write here for people who want to read more new poetry but somehow never get around to it; for people who enjoy Seamus Heaney or Elizabeth Bishop and want to know what next; for people who enjoy John Ashbery or Anne Carson but aren't sure why; and, especially, for people who read the half-column poems in glossy magazines and ask, ‘Is that all there is?'"

This hilariously readable collection of classic nonsense poetry, delightfully illustrated throughout, is a showcase of comic talent and sheer silliness. The Everyman Book of Nonsense Verse features an eclectic spectrum of contributors ranging wildly from Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll to Hilaire Belloc, Ted Hughes, Ogden Nash, and Shakespeare, with illustrations by Mervyn Peake, Quentin Blake, Emma Chichester Clark, Spike Milligan, and the deliciously sinister Edward Gorey. Such old favorites as “The Owl and the Pussycat” are accompanied by “Macavity: The Mystery Cat” and “Jabberwocky,” while Ted Hughes’s “Wodwo” sits alone by the bank of a stream in a state of innocence and curiosity that mirrors a child’s sense of wonder at the universe. Whether sweetly funny or deliciously naughty, these masterpieces of the art of the absurd will charm readers both young and old.

The Book of Nonsense, first published in 1846, stands alone as the ultimate and most loved expression in English of freewheeling, benign, and unconstricted merriment. The poems of the book tell the stories of the owls, hen, larks, and their nests in his beard, and other fey fauna and peculiar persons. They all inhabit the uniquely inspired nonsense rhymes and drawings of Lear, who was a 20th child of a London stockbroker.

Renowned author Daniel Pinkwater and best-selling poet and artist Calef Brown team up to champion the ridiculous! These endlessly fascinating and imaginative poems are as fresh and delightful today as they were when Edward Lear wrote them more than a hundred years ago—from "The Owl and the Pussycat" to "The Pobble Who Has No Toes." This charming book proves that, sometimes, there's nothing children need more than a healthy dose of nonsense!

The closest relative of manThey say, is the orang-utan;And when I look at GrandpapaI realize how right they are!Jam-packed with the very best nonsense rhymes and tricky tongue-twisters, this wonderfully exuberant collection contains quirky, colour illustrations from Colin West and lashings of his wildly wacky verse! Divided into sections to satisfy nonsense-lovers everywhere, this brilliant bumper book will keep children in fits for hours and may inspire them to become rollicking rhyme-makers themselves! Chapters include: Curious Creatures, Tricky Tongue-twisters, Funny Folk, Moments with Monsters, Dotty Ditties, Vicious Verses, Hopeless History, Stories in Stanzas

From much-quoted classics like 'The Owl and the Pussy-cat' and 'Jabberwocky' to the epic adventure 'The Hunting of the Snark', the nonsense poems of Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear have a freshness and a sense of fun that still speak to children of all ages. These two masters of the absurd created characters that have entranced generation after generation: the Walrus and the Carpenter, the Dong with the Luminous Nose and the Quangle Wangle Quee are just a handful of the remarkable creatures to be found in these pages. Whether shared aloud or enjoyed on your own, these verses will continue to delight for years to come.