In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works by John Lennon

Wonsaponatime: John Lennon's Writings as Children's Literature

In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works by John Lennon

When I make a word do a lot of extra work like that, I always pay it extra.
~Humpty Dumpty in Through the Looking-Glass

Portmanteau words derive their meaning and form from the blending of two or more words to create a new word or morpheme. This word and definition come to us from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. Edward Lear also played with portmanteau words like "splendidophoropherostiphongious," to express satisfaction at a dinner party. Here are some examples:

"'Can ye heffer forgive me Jesus, can ye?' she slobbed." Slobbed is formed from the words sloppy and sobbing. "A Spaniard in the Works"

"Past grisby trees and hulky builds..." Hulky is formed from the words huge and bulky. "I Wandered"

"The honeymood was don short by a telephant from Mrs El Pifco..." Telephant is formed from the words telephone and elephant. "A Spaniard in the Works"

"The Inspectre looked astoundagast and figeted nervously from one fat to another." Astoundagast is formed from the words astound and aghast. "The Singu large Experience of Miss Anne Duffield"

"I inadvertabably an unobtrusive neyber had looke round and seen a lot of goings off..." Inadvertabably is formed from the words inadvertently and improbably. "Benjaman Distasteful"

" '...is that all you have to say?' she yellowed. Yellowed is formed from the words yelled and bellowed. "Araminta Ditch"

"Normans mather, who you remembrane, was a combing tooty..." Remembrane is formed from the words remember and membrane. "Silly Norman"

"...'Tell me vicar - tell me the deafinition of sin?'..." Deafinition is formed by the words deaf and definition. "I Believe, Boot..."

"Not long after one of his more well known escapades, he was unfortunable to recieve a terrible blow to his ego." Unfortunable is formed by the words unfortunate and able. "Mr. Borris Morris"

Puns are words that are used in such a way as to suggest two or more of their meanings. Or they can imply the meaning of another word similar in sound. Puns are prevelant in throughout children's literature, especially that of Carroll and Lear. Here are some examples:

"In a recent Doddipottiddy Poll a roaming retorter intervined..." A roaming retorter is a pun on the phrase roving reporter. "The Fingletoad Resort of Teddiviscious"

"So they packed their suitcrates marked 'his and hearse' and set off for their employers highly home in the highlies." His and hearse is a play on his and hers. "A Spaniard in the Works"

"Father Cradock turns around slowly from the book he is eating and explains that it is just a face she is going through.." These words are a pun on the act of reading a book and going through a phase. "Snore Wife and some Several Dwarfs"

"The Inspectre looked astoundasgast and fidgeted nervously from one fat to the other." The word fat is a pun on foot, and Lennon uses the word inspectre to mean inspector. Inspectre is also a play on Carroll's character the Inn-spectre in Phantasmagoria. "The Singu large Experience of Miss Anne Duffield"

" 'I really doughnut see that it is any concervative of thiers whether i larf or nament...'" Doughnut is a pun on do not; concervative is a pun on concern; and nament is a pun on lament. Here concervative is a phonetic spelling of conservative, a technique also used by Lear. For example, 'toppix' means topics, and 'yott' means Yacht."Araminta Ditch"

The title "Readers Lettuce" is a pun on the editorial section of a newspaper which contains reader's letters.

A parody is a literary work in which the author closely imitates another author or style for comic effect.It is a common literary technique used in children' literature.

"Once upon upon in a dizney far away- say three hundred year agoal if you like- there lived in a sneaky forest some several dwarts or cretins; all named- Sleezy, Grumpty, Sneeky, Dog, Smirkey, Alice? Derick- and Wimpey." This particular story is a pun on the Disney version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It also includes an allusion to Alice and her quest for identity in the Alice books. "Snore Wife and some Several Dwarts"

" 'On the other hand who are we to judge? I mean who are we?...Who the hell is Pimpled Dinkletoes? Anyway Who is he?...'" Throughout the Alice books, Lewis Carroll parodies songs, poems and riddles; Lennon bases his own parodies on Carroll's. Here he parodies the caterpillar's question to Alice, "Who are you?" and the quest for identity and reality. "The Fingletoad Resort of Teddiviscious"

"Down hovey lanes and stoney claves

Down ricketts and sticklys myth

In a fatty hebrew gurth

I wandered humply as a sock

To meet bad Bernie Smith..."

With his 'refrain' of 'I wandered,' Lennon is parodying William Wordsworth's "I wandered happy as a cloud." "I Wandered"

" 'Goody Griff, which artery in HEFFER harold be thy norm!'..." This is a parody of The Lords Prayer which begins, Our father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name... "Silly Norman"

"This night I lable down to sleep

With hefty heart and much saddened

With all the bubbles of the world

Bratting my boulders

Oh dear sheep."

Lennon parodies the 18th century child's bedtime prayer, As I lay me down to sleep... "Bernice's Sheep"

"...and in the Father, Sock and Micky Most, I forgive you sweet brother." This is a parody of the sign of the cross, In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost... "I Believe, Boot..."

Onomatopoeia is the use of a word to imply its sound or sense. This technique is the foundation of children's literature and is heavily used in Lewis Carroll's work as well as Edward Lear's poems and limericks.

"My Jeffrey chirps and twitters

When I walk into the room..."

These words suggest the sounds that a bird buddie, or budgie, would make."The Fat Budgie"

" 'Hee! hee! hee!' She larfed all the way down to breakfast." This common onomotopoeia is used throughout this poem to emphasize Araminta's descent into madness. Lewis Carroll also used this technique to illustrates his character's madness in Alice in Wonderlandand Through the Looking-Glass. "Araminta Ditch"

Neologisms are new words or existing words that have a new meaning, usage or expression. Or, as Webster's dictionary states, "a meaningless word coined by a psychotic." For our purposes a "psychotic" will mean a children's literature author, such as Carroll, Lear and Lennon. These words are not meaningless; within nonsense exists sense. Here are some examples of neologisms:

"The only thing that puzzled Jesus was why his sugarboot got so annoyed..." Sugarboot is a ternm of endearment like sweetie or sugarlips. "A Spaniard in the Works"

"...you have the audacidacidity to ask me what to say..." The repetition of the word audacity, in audacidacidity, emphasizes the meaning for the reader. "Benjaman Distasteful"

"They were overjoyced..." To be overjoyced is to be overjoyed, implying James Joyce's nonsense is joy to the reader. Lennon was undoubtably influenced by the Irish nonsense poet. "A Spaniard in the Works"

"The honeymood was don short by a telephant from Mrs El Pifco (his mother) who was apparently leaving Barcelunder to see her eldest sod febore she died laughing, and besides the air would do her good she added." The word honeymood suggests the feeling of a honeymoon, rather than the action of it. As implied by the structure and function of the rest of the sentence, the word don means cut and sod means son. These can also be considered distortions of phonetic spellings. Lear used many distortions in his poems, for example 'buzzim' means bosom, 'omejutly' means immediately, 'pollyguise' means apologise, 'mewtshool' means mutual, and 'gnote' means note."A Spaniard in the Works"

"I call my budgie Jeffrey

My grandads name's the same

I call him after grandad

Who had a feathered brain."

A budgie is a bird buddie, and the word is repeated throughout the poem. This style was influenced by Edward Lears' Nonsense Poems, which Lennon read as he was growing up in Liverpool. "The Fat Budgie"

"Araminta would larf all the more at an outburp like this, even to the point of hysteriffs." Lennon coins the term larf to capture the colloquialism of the Liverpuddlian laugh. He uses it repeatedly in order to convince the reader that it is the new signifier (larf) to the old signified (laugh). Outburp means outburst and hysteriffs are hysterics. "Araminta Ditch"

" 'Griff walks in such mysterious ways His woodwork to perform' The word griff is Lennon's expression for God and Jesus.

Lennon repeatedly forgoes the rules and conventions, such as metaphors and similes, of language in favor of his own nonsense and etymology, as did Lewis Carroll in his literature.

" 'I really doughnut see see that it is any concervative of thiers..."

"... he was unfortunable to recieve a terrible blow to his ego."

The rule, "i before e, except after th and c," is broken throughout, as are rules of punctuation and capitalization. "Araminta Ditch" and "Mr. Borris Morris"

"I call him after grandad

Who had a feathered brain."

Lennon revives the dead metaphor "bird brain", by changing it to feathered brain.

"But he had been to greedy

He died just like a zoo."

He also uses a simile that makes no sense, thereby detaching the word from its meaning. "The Fat Budgie"

"...(and what do we mean by the word wonder?)...(and what do I mean by the word wonder?)...(and what- I ask myself do we mean by an ordinary man?)...(what exactly do we mean by Sunday?)...(what do we mean by perform?)..." Lennon questions the very meaning of common words; a self-riddling that is reminiscent of the mad tea party in Alice in Wonderland. "I Believe Boot"

Spoonerisms are words that have a transposition of sounds. Usually they are the initial sounds from two or more words, but Lennon creates his own kind of spoonerism:

"...Mrs El Pifco (his mother) who was apparently leaving Barcelunder to see her eldest sod febore she died laughing, and besides the air would do her good she added." The word febore is a spoonerism created from the word 'before'. Lear is often credited with having discovered the spoonerism before Spooner did, when he wrote of 'Mary Squeen of Cots.' "A Spaniard in the Works"

English 304- Children's Literature