The Owl and the Pussy-Cat Lyrics
An owl and a cat sail away in a pea-green boat, buy a ring from a pig for one shilling, marry on the shore and dance in the moonlight. Edward Lear's nonsense poem is one of the best-known verses in English.
The Owl and the Pussy-Cat
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!"
Pussy said to the Owl, "You elegant fowl,
How charmingly sweet you sing!
Oh! let us be married; too long we have tarried:
But what shall we do for a ring?"
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the bong-tree grows;
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood,
With a ring at the end of his nose,
His nose,
His nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.
"Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling
Your ring?" Said the Piggy, "I will."
So they took it away, and were married next day
By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
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,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/the-owl-and-the-pussy-cat/
- Type
- Poems for Children, Animal Rhymes
- Written by
- Edward Lear
- Tune
- Read aloud with a rocking rhythm, like a boat on calm water
- Best for ages
- 3 to 9 years
What Does The Owl and the Pussy-Cat Mean?
The story moves fast. The two friends set off by sea with honey and money wrapped in a five-pound note. The owl serenades the cat on a small guitar, the cat answers with a proposal and a worry: there is no ring. So they sail on for a year and a day to the land where the bong-tree grows, where a pig is standing in a wood with a ring in its nose. The pig sells it for a shilling, a Turkey marries the pair the next day, and they eat dinner and dance on the sand.
Some words need a word of help. A fowl is a bird. To tarry is to wait or linger, so "too long we have tarried" means they have waited long enough. A quince is a hard yellow fruit, a little like a pear, usually cooked before it is eaten. Mince is finely chopped food. A shilling was a small British coin. The bong-tree and the runcible spoon are Lear's own inventions: no such tree exists, and Lear never says what a runcible spoon looks like, so each reader pictures a different one.
Each verse ends the same way: the last line is cut into short echoes ("You are, you are", "His nose, his nose", "The moon, the moon") before the full line comes round again. Children soon join in on the echoes.
History and Origin
Edward Lear (1812 to 1888) was an English artist and writer who drew his own pictures for his verses. The poem was printed in his book Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany, and Alphabets, published in 1871. Lear is said to have written it for Janet Symonds, the young daughter of a friend.
The voyage was set to music, too. An introduction to the 1894 edition of Lear's Nonsense Books mentions musical arrangements of the cruise of the Owl and the Pussy-cat, and says one was used in a "drawing-room entertainment", a light evening show of songs and comic sketches.
Learning Activities
- Boat in the room: sit in a big cardboard box or on a rug and rock gently while the poem is read; join in on the echo lines.
- Draw the pea-green boat: paint the boat, then add the guitar, the pig and the Turkey who lives on the hill.
- Invent a bong-tree: ask each child to draw what a bong-tree might look like, or what a runcible spoon is for.
- Moonlight dance: dim the lights and sway slowly with a partner on the last verse.