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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Alenda" data-source="post: 2786534" data-attributes="member: 15215">Del wrote: "I know, but it's similar, along with early english nursery rhymes."I hate to beat a dead horse, but the English major in me cries out to reply to this. While I agree that some of Edward Lear's works have crossed over into the "nursery rhyme canon" (such as "The Owl and the Pussycat" and his numerous limericks), I think the comparison of Lear to the Grimm Brothers is a literary stretch if ever there was one.The Grimm Brothers collected popular oral tales from around Europe, reworked them and published them as an anthology. Many of them were grim or even brutal in nature. Also, the original audience for Grimm's fairy tales were adults, not children. Lear on the other hand created original works, mainly in verse. They were light-hearted, whimsical, and used unique rhyming conventions and nonsense words to elicit a laugh. There were written for children and possess a sweet innocence about them.Lear himself was actually quite an artistic guy. In addition to his poetry, he also illustrated several of his books. His illustrations are just as wonderful and whimsical as his poetry, and reflect the light-hearted side of childhood.If you still wish to compare Lear to someone, I would say that Lewis Carroll would be about as close as you might hope to come.</blockquote>