Edward Lear

Edward Lear's A Book of Nonsense was published in 1846. That date needs to be taken into account for some of my comments.

All of the poems are limericks. Each one has a marvelous drawing above the poem. Here is an example of one of his limericks:

There was an Old Man of the Nile,
Who sharpened his nails with a file;
Till he cut off his thumbs,
And said calmly, "This comes—
Of sharpening one's nails with a file!"

One of the main problems I found was the repeat rhyming of the same word, in this case the word "file." That is a lazy man's rhyme pattern. After a while, it grated on me. Usually he just pretty much repeated the first line, like this example:

There was an Old Person of Rheims,
Who was troubled with horrible dreams;
So, to keep him awake,
They fed him with cake,
Which amused that Old Person of Rheims.

There are two poems in the collection that I found troubling. Funny that I have yet to find a reviewer who mentions them. The first one is misogynistic:

There was an Old Man on some rocks,
Who shut his wife up in a box;
When she said, "Let me out,"
He exclaimed, "Without doubt,
You will pass all your life in that box."

The second troubling poem for me is racist:

There was an Old Man of Jamaica,
Who suddenly married a Quaker;
But she cried out—"O lack!
I have married a black!"
Which distressed that Old Man of Jamaica.

Now my questions are: 1. Should I give this book to my grandchildren? 2. Should I explain what is wrong with those two poems? 3. Do I excuse the author because he wrote in a different time period?