Another favorite classic children's music box now back in stock!This cheerful music box designed for both boys and girls plays Pachelbel Canon and is inspired by "The Owl and the Pussycat", a famous nonsense poem by Edward Lear (original illustration is shown below), first published in 1871. Lear wrote the poem for a young girl, Janet Symonds, the daughter of Lear's friend, the poet John Addington Symonds and his wife Catherine. Its most notable historical feature is the coinage of the term runcible spoon. It features four anthropomorphised animals (the owl, the pussycat, the 'piggy-wig' and a turkey) and revolves around the love between the title characters, who are married by the turkey in the third and final stanza.
It goes like this..........
The Owl and the Pussycat 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.
O 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.
More about the history of this delightful poem from wikipedia:
- The story has been set to music and animated many times, including by Igor Stravinsky, Burl Ives and by Laurie Anderson.1952 cartoon by Halas and Batchelor.
- A version was composed by Elton Hayes in 1948 and was recorded in 1953 by Parlophone. It became a regular item on Children's Favourites.
- It was the central focus for a 1968 children's musical play about Lear's nonsense poems, entitled "The Owl and the Pussycat went to see". The play was written by Sheila Ruskin and David Wood.
- The title was borrowed for an unrelated stage play and subsequent 1970 movie starring Barbra Streisand and George Segal.
- Igor Stravinsky set it to music in 1966. A recording of the work was made under the supervision of the composer and is available on Sony's 'Stravinsky Edition'.
- In 1971, a cartoon based on the poem was made by Weston Woods.
- In the 1968 Disney animated feature Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day, later a part of 1977's The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, the character Owl mentions a relative of his who supposedly "went to sea in a pea-green boat" with a Pussycat.
- The two main characters were the inspiration for X the Owl and Henrietta Pussycat in the "Neighborhood of Make-Believe" from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.
- Laurie Anderson composed and recorded a version titled Beautiful Pea Green Boat that appeared on her 1994 album Bright Red.
- Eric Idle, a former member of Monty Python's Flying Circus, wrote a children's book entitled The Quite Remarkable Adventures of the Owl and the Pussycat which was based on the poem. It is an extended story about when the Owl and the Pussycat were attacked by a band of ruthless rats who were out to steal pies. It was illustrated by Wesla Weller and was first published in 1996 with an audio version which included some songs by Idle himself.
- In a musical album of the show Bananas in Pyjamas, the story of The Owl and the Pussycat was sang as a rap song.
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