Tag archives: children’s fiction

Higher-cynths, lower-cynths, and Seeze Pyders: why Lear’s ‘nonsense’ language is more than just fun

You’ve heard of a writer called Lear? His two hundredth birthday’s this year. They called him absurd But he wrote undeterred, That remarkable writer called Lear. If there were no other reason to remember Edward Lear with fondness (and there are, in fact, very many), his popularization of the limerick would be enough. Like so [...]

Posted on: May 11 2012 | Posted by: | Comments: 6 | Categories: English in use | Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

A poetic tribute to Dr Seuss

Last week saw the 108th birthday of Dr Seuss, the pen-name of Theodor Seuss Geisel (1904–1991). An American writer of hugely successful books for children, he was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street (1937) introduced Seuss’s iconic visual and verbal style. This was further extended in the [...]

Posted on: March 9 2012 | Posted by: | Comments: 2 | Categories: Dictionaries and lexicography, English in use | Tags: , , , , ,