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Sri Lanka – Edward Lear Prize for Poetry
Edward Lear was a 19th Century English artist, illustrator, musician, author and poet. He is known mostly for his literary nonsense poems and prose and especially his limericks. His poetry takes an irreverent view of the world. Lear’s nonsense poems delight in the sounds of words, both real and imaginary. A stuffed rhinoceros becomes a “diaphanous doorscraper.” His heroes are Quangle-Wangles, Pobbles, and Jumblies. My favourite Lear poem is the Dong with the Luminous Nose.I think it is the words “Jumbly Girl” that triggers a happy memory and makes me smile. But when the sun was low in the West, The Dong arose and said; “What little sense I…