“The Owl and the Pussy-Cat” Introduction

• Edward Lear's "The Owl and the Pussy-Cat" is a classic children's poem, originally published in Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany and Alphabets (1871). Its heroes, an owl and a cat, fall madly in love and sail off to be married together. With the help of a friendly pig and turkey, they enjoy a delightful wedding, followed by dinner and a dance in the moonlight. A fantasy of perfect romance, the poem has delighted generations of kids and grown-ups and remains one of the best-known examples of Victorian-era "nonsense" verse.

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“The Owl and the Pussy-Cat” Summary

• An owl and a cat sailed away together in a pretty, light-green boat. They brought along some honey to eat and a wad of cash, bundled up in a British banknote. The owl strummed a little guitar, gazed at the stars, and sang about how beautiful the cat was.

  The cat praised the owl for being a sophisticated bird and a wonderful singer. Then the cat exclaimed that they should get married at once—in fact, they'd waited too long already—but wondered how they could find a wedding ring. The two creatures sailed off on a 366-day voyage to the country famous for its Bong-Tree. There, in the forest, they found a pig wearing a ring in his nose.

  They asked the pig if he would sell them the ring for a small (twelve-pence) coin. He agreed, so they carried off the ring and had their wedding the following day. A turkey, who lived on the hill nearby, officiated. Afterward, the newlyweds ate mincemeat and sliced quince (an apple-like fruit) with a weird, whimsical utensil. They held hands and danced on the beach by moonlight.

“The Owl and the Pussy-Cat” Themes

• 

  Love, Marriage, and Happiness

  One of the world's most popular children's poems, "The Owl and the Pussy-Cat" is a joyous celebration of love. Its heroes take a pleasure trip to sea, where the Owl woos the Pussy-Cat in song and the Pussy-Cat proposes marriage. After a further voyage, they buy a ring from an obliging Piggy-wig, get married with the help of a Turkey, dine on delicious foods, and dance in the moonlight. Apart from the long trip to obtain the ring, there are no roadblocks on the lovers' path to happiness: all is romance, luck, and fun. There's no conflict between the lovers, either, despite their differing species. When you're blissfully in love, the poem suggests, you feel totally in sync with your partner, and everything seems to go your way.

  From the beginning of the poem to the end, the Owl and the Pussy-Cat are defined by their shared love. They're presented as a couple ("The Owl and the Pussy-Cat") from the title on, and the poem ends with their wedding reception. The dialogue between the two shows that they're deeply in love even before they take their pleasure trip to sea. The Owl calls the Pussy-cat "beautiful" and "my love"; the Pussy-cat not only proposes marriage but says they've waited too long to marry as is. The Owl doesn't even need to accept the proposal. They're completely on the same page and set out at once to find a ring.

  Their total commitment to each other seems to bring them good luck: their relationship never faces any real obstacles. It's unclear what has made them "tarr[y]" or hesitate to get married, but whatever the issue was, it vanishes at the start of the poem. The fact that they're different species never becomes a problem either, nor does the surrounding world pose any challenges. They have "plenty of money," find a Pig who sells them a ring on the cheap, and get married the "next day," with a friendly local Turkey officiating. They do sail "for a year and a day" to find the ring, but there's no indication that this long voyage is difficult—or even necessary! In the poem's imaginary world, all that matters is that they're madly in love.

  The poem is thus a fantasy of ideal romance: for these lovers, everything is sweetness and light. The couple feeds exclusively on sweet and tasty treats like "honey" and "quince" (an apple-like fruit) using a "runcible spoon"—an imaginary object that sounds rare, exotic, and delightful. They get married in "the land where the Bong-Tree grows," an imaginary place that sounds like a kind of paradise, and then dance beneath the "moon": the age-old symbol of romance. In general, unlike the couples in most love stories (and Lear poems, for that matter!), the Owl and Pussy-cat are happy from start to finish. The poem portrays romantic bliss between a fantastical couple, imagining a love more perfect and pure than any that could exist in reality. The poem seems to suggest that this is what true love feels like, or at least should feel like.

  • See where this theme is active in the poem.

Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Owl and the Pussy-Cat”

• Lines 1-4

  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.

  Lines 1-4 establish the poem's main characters and initial setting. The poem's heroes are the pair mentioned in the title—"The Owl and the Pussy-Cat"—and they take a delightful trip to "sea" together. By the end of the stanza, it's clear that they're a couple, and they're madly in love.

  In these opening lines, the atmosphere is already charming and romantic. The couple's boat is "beautiful," their food is sweet ("honey"), and their money is "plent[iful]." In fact, their money is "Wrapped up" in even more money! A "five-pound note" (similar to a U.S. five-dollar bill) would have had a lot of purchasing power back in 1871, when the poem was published. Basically, the Owl and the Pussy-Cat have everything they need for a happy, comfortable journey.

  Of course, none of these details would make sense in the real world. Cats and owls don't fall for each other, don't sail in boats, don't typically eat honey, and don't spend money! The poem places readers firmly in the world of make-believe and "nonsense"—the term often used to describe Edward Lear's writing. Taken on its own terms, however, that world is playful and inviting.

  Here and throughout, the poem uses a bouncy accentual meter. This means that its pattern is based on the number of stresses per line, but not the number of syllables or the placement of stresses. Note, too, that first eight lines of each stanza alternate between longer and shorter lines, making them resemble ballad stanzas. Generally, they also alternate between four stresses and three stresses apiece Listen to lines 1-2, for example:

  The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea
  In a beautiful pea-green boat,

  (Some readers might argue that there's a stress on "green" there, but it's subtle.) There's also a boatload of rhyme, including internal rhyme ("honey"/"money"). These features give it a sing-song, nursery-rhyme quality that's ideal for a children's poem. (Lear originally wrote "The Owl and the Pussy-Cat" for a friend's three-year-old daughter, and it's remained a classic of children's literature for over 150 years.)

• Lines 5-11

  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!"

  

  

• Lines 12-15

  Pussy said to the Owl, "You elegant fowl!
     How charmingly sweet you sing!
  O let us be married! too long we have tarried:
     But what shall we do for a ring?"

  

  

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• Lines 16-22

  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.

  

  

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• Lines 23-26

  "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.

  

  

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• Lines 27-33

  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.

  

  

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“The Owl and the Pussy-Cat” Symbols

• 

  The Moon

  The moon is a timeless symbol of love and romance. While the poem doesn't dig into this symbolism too deeply, it's no coincidence the Owl and the Pussy-Cat dance beneath the moon, "hand in hand," just after they've gotten married. No portrait of true love would be complete without a little moonlight! (Owls and cats are also nocturnal creatures, so it makes sense that their romance plays out under "the moon" and "the stars above.")

  • See where this symbol appears in the poem.

“The Owl and the Pussy-Cat” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Repetition

  The poem contains two main kinds of repetition.

  First, it repeats a number of words that are central to its story and themes, including "beautiful," "lovely"/"love," "married," and "ring," plus the names of the main characters and the exclamatory "O." Clearly, this is a love story, and one with a happy ending! Then there's the repetitive phrase "hand in hand," which also relates to love—and is especially charming because neither owls nor cats have hands. (Paw in wing?)

  Second, there's the structural repetition at the end of each stanza. Lines 7-11, 19-22, and 30-33 all repeat a phrase, partly or in full, four times over. Look at the end of the last stanza, for example:

  They danced by the light of the moon,
  The moon,
  The moon,
  They danced by the light of the moon.

  These repetitions enhance the sing-song quality of the poem, making it more fun for kids to hear and recite. (Or even sing!) Here and in the first stanza, the song-like cadence is especially appropriate, because in each case, the characters themselves are singing or dancing.

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• Imagery

  

  
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• Assonance

  

  

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• Caesura

  

  

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• Dialogue

  

  

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"The Owl and the Pussy-Cat" Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Five-pound note
• Fowl
• Tarried
• Bong-Tree
• Ring at the end of his nose
• Shilling
• Mince
• Quince
• Runcible spoon

• A British banknote worth five pounds sterling. (In 1871, when the poem was published, five pounds would have been nearly $550 in 2022 U.S. dollars.)

  • See where this vocabulary word appears in the poem.

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Owl and the Pussy-Cat”

• Form

  "The Owl and the Pussy-Cat" contains three stanzas of 11 lines each. The last three lines of each stanza repeat the eighth line partly or in full—for example:

  They danced by the light of the moon,
  The moon,
  The moon,
  They danced by the light of the moon.

  This effect gives the poem a sing-song, nursery rhyme-like cadence, fun for kids to hear and recite.

  Like many nursery rhymes and children's poems, this one uses accentual meter. For the first eight lines of each stanza, it alternates between four-beat and three-beat lines. Then come the one-beat repetitions in the ninth and tenth lines ("You are," "His nose," "The moon"), followed by the three-beat eleventh line (a repetition of the eighth). Accentual meter tends to sound bouncy and lively rather than restrained and strict, so it's a good choice for children's verse.

  The poem is also full of end rhyme and internal rhyme: ear candy for kids! Similar-sounding and repeated words make the language delightful to hear and easy to memorize. For more about how rhyme works in this poem, see the Rhyme section of this guide.

• Meter

  The poem uses accentual meter, meaning that its pattern is based on the number of stresses per line, but not the number of syllables or the placement of stresses. The first eight lines of each stanza alternate between four stresses and three stresses apiece. Listen to how this pattern sounds in lines 1-4, for example:

  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 ninth and tenth lines of each stanza then contain one stress apiece (e.g., "You are"), and the eleventh line repeats the eighth, so it contains three stresses.

  Accentual meter is often found in nursery rhymes and children's verse (the genre to which "The Owl and the Pussy-Cat" belongs). It's strongly rhythmic and easy for the ear to follow, yet its flexibility makes it sound jaunty and playful rather than strict. This combination appeals to kids—and adults, too!

• Rhyme Scheme

  The poem's first stanza follows a rhyme scheme of ABCBDEDEEEE. The second and third stanzas follow a nearly identical pattern, except that the fifth and seventh lines don't rhyme. The final rhyme word of each stanza gets repeated four times (e.g., "nose" in lines 19-22). Also, most of the poem's four-beat lines rhyme internally—for example, "They sailed away, for a year and a day" (line 16).

  In other words, this is a very rhyme-rich poem, which follows a consistent pattern with a few small variations. These qualities make the poem easy for readers of all ages to follow and memorize, not to mention fun to read and hear. They give the poem a nursery-rhyme flavor, especially in combination with the lively accentual meter, silly characters, etc. It's no accident that "The Owl and the Pussy-Cat" is considered a classic of children's verse.

“The Owl and the Pussy-Cat” Speaker

• "The Owl and the Pussy-Cat" has a third-person speaker—the same signature voice that narrates virtually all of Edward Lear's "nonsense" verse. This speaker often uses silly, made-up terms like "Bong-Tree" and "runcible" (an undefined adjective that also appears in a number of other Lear poems). The speaker tosses out these terms with little to no explanation, creating a kind of private imaginary world. This playful, singsong voice has delighted readers the world over since Lear first began publishing his children's books in the late 19th century.

“The Owl and the Pussy-Cat” Setting

• For a short poem, "The Owl and the Pussy-Cat" contains a surprising number of settings. It begins at "sea," where the Owl and the Pussy-cat sail out on a nighttime voyage. Later, the couple arrives at the imaginary "land where the Bong-Tree grows," where they find the Piggy-wig in a "wood." They take the Pig's ring "away" to some other location, where they're married by a Turkey "who lives on the hill" (which hill? who knows?). Finally, they wind up on a beach, dancing by moonlight "on the edge of the sand."

  Basically, the poem traces a whimsical journey. As a comic poem for children, it contains a lot of lively, silly action with a satisfying ending. The main characters end up more or less where they began: at the edge of the ocean. (The beach they dance on may not be the same one they set out from, but the similar locations bring the poem full circle.) Most of the action also takes place at night, beneath the "moon" and "stars"—a perfect setting for lovers, and for nocturnal cats and owls.

Literary and Historical Context of “The Owl and the Pussy-Cat”

• Literary Context

  Edward Lear first published "The Owl and the Pussy-Cat" in 1870, in an American magazine called Our Young Folks, and subsequently included it in the collection Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany, and Alphabets (1871). This collection also featured such beloved works as "The Duck and the Kangaroo," a similar example of nonsense anthropomorphic poetry. Although Lear hoped to make his name as a painter, he became most celebrated for his light verse, including his multitude of limericks. Though Lear himself didn't invent the limerick, he popularized and expanded the form, most famously in The Book of Nonsense (1846).

  Lear's limericks and children's poetry find inspiration in older English nursery rhymes. His closest peer as a Victorian "nonsense" poet was Lewis Carroll, who wove "Jabberwocky," "The Walrus and the Carpenter," and other famous poems into his novel Through the Looking-Glass (published in 1871, the same year as Nonsense Songs). In the 20th century, Lear's work influenced Dr. Seuss, Ogden Nash, and other well-known writers of light verse.

  Historical Context

  Like many of Edward Lear's children's poems, "The Owl and the Pussy-Cat" features a journey: in this case, a voyage across the "sea" to the mythical "land where the Bong-Tree grows." Lear, too, traveled the world, spending time in Jerusalem, Paris, Corsica, and San Remo in the years leading up to the poem's publication. As a visual artist, he painted many of the foreign landscapes he visited, and 19th-century advances in rail and ocean travel facilitated his nomadic lifestyle. His characters' love of travel often reflects their desire for freedom and happiness, and it seems to have been distinctly personal for the author.

  Unlike many of Lear's poems, "The Owl and the Pussy-Cat" depicts an ideal romantic relationship. Most of Lear's characters are lonely eccentrics or heartbroken lovers, like the hero of "The Courtship of the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo." Lear himself led a life marked by romantic frustration. Though his sexuality and romantic experience are subjects of scholarly debate, most biographers agree that he was a gay man during an age (the UK's Victorian era) when homosexuality was forbidden and even criminalized. His long-time love for his friend Franklin Lushington was largely (though not entirely) unrequited, causing tension between the two. While many of Lear's poems seem to channel a private romantic disappointment, "The Owl and the Pussy-Cat" instead imagines a perfect love—one where there are no real obstacles and everything works out beautifully. It also pays tribute to his beloved cat, Foss, the inspiration for "the Pussy-cat."

More “The Owl and the Pussy-Cat” Resources

• External Resources

  • The Poem, Animated — Watch an animated adaptation of "The Owl and the Pussy-Cat."

  • A Reading of the Poem — Actress Judi Dench reads "The Owl and the Pussy-Cat."

  • The Poet's Life — A short biography of Edward Lear, courtesy of the Poetry Foundation.

  • The Poem, Illustrated — View the poem with Lear's original illustrations.

  • The Runcible Spoon — What in the world is a runcible spoon? Find more context here.

  • A Lear Documentary — A short BBC film on the life and art of Edward Lear.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Edward Lear

  • The Dong with a Luminous Nose

  • The Duck and the Kangaroo