The Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò

Edward Lear's poem, "The Courtship of the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò” inspired this album. Mr. Lear, a Victorian author and artist, rose to fame first through his brilliant realistic zoological illustrations and later through his whimsical illustrated children’s writings–nonsense limericks, songs, stories, botanies, alphabets, and recipes. Despite his success, intense melancholy and hidden anxieties impaired his inner life. Many historians believe he was neurodivergent. “Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò” tells the story of an eccentric man living on the Coast of Coromandel in India, who falls in love with Lady Jingly Jones and impulsively asks for her hand in marriage. Though she returns his affection, she cannot accept. She already has a mate back in England. Heartbroken, he rides away on the back of a large and lively turtle to the sunset isles of Boshen. Lear scholars see the character as a woebegone portrait of the author himself. What prevents the poem from being a total downer is Lear’s talent for telling the tale in delightfully silly, absurdist terms.

LISTEN WITH ADS

STREAM OR PURCHASE