Hello and welcome back to the Daily Poem here on the Close Reeds Podcast Network.

I'm David Kern.

Today's poem is by Edward Lear, who lived from 1812 to 1888.

He was an English poet and illustrator, as well as a musician, who is now known mostly for his nonsense poems

and his limericks, which he popularized as a form. Today's poem is called the Jumblies, and I'll dive right

into it because it's a little bit long, and it is certainly a little bit nonsensical, but I'll

explain a little bit why I love it here in a few minutes.

So dive right in.

This is The Jumblies by Edward Lear.

They went to sea in a sieve they did, in a sieve they went to sea.

In spite of all their friends could say on a winter's morn, on a stormy day,

in a sieve they went to sea.

And when the sieve turned round and round, and everyone cried,

You'll all be drowned!

They called aloud,

Our sieve ain't big, but we don't care a button.

We don't care a fig, and a sieve will go to sea.

Far and few, far and few are the lands where the jumblies live.

Their heads are green, and their hands are blue, and they went to sea in a sieve.

They sailed away in a sieve they did.

In a sieve they sailed so fast with only a beautiful pea-green veil,

tied with a rye band by way of a sail, to a small tobacco pipe mast.

...