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Enjoy this curated selection of theme-related dances for celebrations and holidays, or find a dance associated with a special calendar day, or EVEN your own birthday!
May 12
Limerick Day
Owl and the Pussycat
Other Scottish Country Dances for this Day
Today's Musings, History & Folklore
"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 Owl and the Pussy-Cat, Edward Lear, 1871
It's Limerick Day and a good day to have a limerick ready for quoting on the dance floor!
But if only naughty limericks are coming to mind, first refresh yourself with a far more respectable piece of literary nonsense in dance form with this busy jig for 4 couples by John Drewry — a dance which mischievously begins with 3rd and 4th couples standing on the opposite sides!
Born on May 12, 1812, Edward Lear was an English artist, illustrator, musician, traveler, and poet whose wonderfully absurd verses helped popularize the limerick as we know it today. Though many of his limericks featured gloriously odd old persons from improbable places, Lear’s nonsense writing delighted in musical language, invented words, impossible situations, and cheerful absurdities such as:
There was an Old Man of Thermopylae,
Who never did anything properly;
But they said, “If you choose
To boil eggs in your shoes,
You shall never remain in Thermopylae.
Among his most quoted creations is The Owl and the Pussy-cat, written for Janet Symonds, the young daughter of Lear’s friend and fellow writer John Addington Symonds. First published in 1871, the poem follows the unlikely pair as they sail away “in a beautiful pea-green boat” to be married with the aid of a pig, a turkey, and the now-famous “runcible spoon” — a nonsense term invented entirely by Lear and cheerfully left unexplained ever since.
And don't forget to "dance by the light of the moon, owls and pussycats! 🕺 💃 💚 💙 💚 🦉 🐱 🍯 💸 🥄
Owl and the Pussycat
For more on the quotable Edward Lear, click on his portrait.
And for a recipe for a "honey-poached" quince pie (which you can eat with a runcible spoon if you like), click the elegantly clad in plaid or tartan owl and pussycat!
***
The Owl and the Pussy-Cat
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 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.
Click the dance cribs or description below to link to a printable version of the dance!
