The Owl and the Pussy-Cat
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"The Owl and the Pussycat" is a famous nonsense poem by Edward Lear, first published in 1871. 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 final stanza (of three).
Portions of an unfinished sequel, "The Children of the Owl and the Pussycat," were first published posthumously in 1938.
The title characters famously go to sea in "a beautiful pea-green boat". The phrase "pea-green" occurs several times in Lear's writings (including his surviving diaries). He clearly had some fondness either for the sound of this phrase, or for this particular shade of green, or perhaps both.
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