NONSENSE GARDENS
Inspired by
Edward Lear’s Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany and Alphabets
Edward Lear
Edward Lear was an artist, musician and writer, who often visited Hastings by train between 1833 and 1864.
The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea-green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money,
Wrapped up in a five-pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
And sang to a small guitar,
"O lovely Pussy! O Pussy, my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are,
You are,
You are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are!"
Edward Lear self-portraits
The Owl And The Pussycat, was written when Lear was staying with his friends the North family on Old London Road in Hastings. He composed it to cheer up their 3 year old niece Janet Symonds who was feeling unwell. Perhaps they set out to sea from Hastings beach!
Maybe he thought of a name first and then drew the plant. Or maybe he drew the plant and then thought of a name.
How will you do it?
SONG SEEDS
We’re going to invent our own Nonsense Gardens based on Edward Lear’s book and put our ideas into a song.
Where will your
nonsense garden be? In your front or back garden, in the sea, on another planet, in the sky or underground?
Lear used the idea of funny sounding Latin names to make up his own names and strange plants, like Barkia Howlaloudia and Manypeeplia Upsidownia.
LET’S TALK LATIN
Two thousand years ago the Romans ruled England and many other countries. They spoke Latin. There are many Latin words used in English today, particularly in the sciences, medicine and law. A system of using Latin words to name and identify different plants was invented by Swedish botanist, Carl Linnaeus 300 years ago.
The first part of a Latin plant name tells us what general plant family it belongs to, and the second part of the name is unique to that plant species. Hint: Latin names often end in “is” “us” “ia” or “a”, so you can add this to normal words like Lear does.
Dandelion - Taraxacum officinale. It already has a fun name - a “dandy lion” - perhaps a lion who likes dressing up!
Violets - Viola. A viola is a musical instrument. Maybe you could draw the flower with strings and a bow?
Daffodils – Narcissus.
Narcissus fell in love with his own reflection, so
the flower is looking in
the mirror!
Interesting and fantastic (but real!) plants to inspire you:
Passion flower
(Passiflora)
Dragon Trees(Dracaena)
Baobab Tree
(Adansonia)
Monkey Cups
(Nepenthes)
Corpse Flower (Amorphophallus titanum)
Venus Fly Trap (Dionaea)
‘MUSHROOM’ FOR NONSENSE
Here are some fun guys (funghi) for inspiration, by French artist Collete Xavier. She calls them Mushroom Dragons. https://www.xaviercollette.com/les-champidragons/
Maybe something in the Hastings air?
Lewis Carroll, who lived around the same time as Edward Lear, and wrote Alice in Wonderland, often visited his aunts who lived at 2 Wellington Square, Hastings. He invented the fantasy world of Alice Through The Looking Glass. This contained the magical nonsense poem Jabberwocky, with made up creatures and plants, like the Tumtum tree and the tulgey wood. What would they look like, do you think?
The poem has lots of lovely made up words:
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”
He took his vorpal sword in hand;
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe
Spike Milligan
The comedian, poet, writer and performer Spike Milligan lived near Rye, Hastings and is well known for his nonsense poems.
He died in 2002, and his grave in Winchelsea has the funny message “I told you I was ill” written in Gaelic, the ancient Irish language. Ning Nang Nong is one of his poems, including trees that go “ping”!
He uses lots of silly sounds when he sings the poem. Perhaps you can include funny sounds in your garden song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFDN2nOHq5g
LINKS TO SONGS & POEMS FOR INSPIRATION
These all have a nonsense, fun or dream-like quality. You may know others.
Supporting Notes for Teachers (if required)
Creating a Nonsense Garden song
STEP 1
“Have fun letting your imagination go wild and inventing your own fantasy garden world.”
Use Lear’s nonsense stories to inspire them to create and explore the adventures they could have in this world.
Writing a Nonsense Garden song
STEP 2
Ask the class to think of special qualities their plant/s has. What does it smell like? Can it move? Does it bite? Does it have hands or claws? Does it feel velvet soft, or prickly? What colour/s is it? Does it have special powers? What noise does it make?
Ask them to think of the name of their plant and then make up a line that
rhymes, using its colour or other quality.
eg. “Barkus Howlaloudias are noisiest in rain showers” or “Tigerlilia terribilis have yellow and black stripes you cannot miss”!
Then pull it all together to create an imaginary garden filled with everyone’s ideas, which also describes walking through the garden, to give the song momentum.
What would be the name of the garden with all the plants in it? Maybe that could be the title of the song. Will the garden be in the sea, sky, earth, planet?
Writing a Nonsense Garden song
STEP 3
Listen to some songs with the class. There are some suggestions included in the slider.
Ask the children to come up with rhythms and melodies to their lines, including any special effects noises.
Create a chorus including the name of the song.
Pull together all the elements. This can be the hardest stage. If you need support once it’s all together, to form chords and tidy up loose ends, then our songwriter can help you at this stage and do a rehearsal tape if required.
Writing a Nonsense Garden song
STEP 4
When you have your song, you could think about performing it. Allow the children to explores sounds, instruments and movements to go with their lines.
STEP 5
Make a practice recording and practice.
STEP 6
Film it. Be imaginative. Use the drawings, sounds and actions. If you can’t film it please send us your drawings and recording and we’ll put them together.