How Pleasant to Know Mr. Lear by Edward Lear

In this poem, the author is met with conflicting feelings on his/her attitude toward Mr. Lear. Is it really pleasant to know Mr. Lear to the writer? The answer lies in that the writer is envious of Mr. Lear and uses the poem to accurately depict the writer’s point of view of Mr. Lear and how truly pleasant it is to know him.
This envy can be seen in the manner in which the poem is structured. Every other line in the poem is typically characterized by describing Mr. Lear through facts, while every line following provides personal opinion to expand the readers understanding of Mr. Lear. For example the line “his mind is concrete and fastidious,” is an descriptive statement that describes what Mr. Lear’s intelligence, but immediately following that line is “His nose is remarkably big.” In reading this I was perplexed as to why you would talk about how intelligent someone is and then switch to insulting remarks about their physical features. The structure of the poem, allowed the reader to not only understand Mr. Lear has a remarkable, smart, and knowledgeable individual, but also allowed the reader to see his more normal and less desirable characteristics. In doing this the reader is conflicting on how they feel toward Mr. Lear. This is exactly what the writer hopes to do to the reader. I feel as if the writer almost is trying to discredit Mr. Lear by pairing all of his great qualities with that of some of his flaws.
Another way in which one can see the envious behavior that the writer has toward Mr. Lear is through the descriptive manner of this poem. Every stanza, sentence, and word in this poem is used to describe Mr. Lear. The constant use of the personal pronoun he and his, makes it clear to the reader that this whole poem is all about Mr. Lear. As a reader this can establish thoughts of why Mr. Lear is so important. At first some readers might conclude that this poem is written to illustrate all the greatness that Mr. Lear represents, but as you read deeper it becomes clear that the writer is envious of Mr. Lear. When jealous of an individual, we often times talk about them constantly and try to dismiss any of their good qualities by reminding people of their flaws. In writing a poem all about Mr. Lear, this allowed the writer to portray Mr. Lear in the negative light that they desired for Mr. Lear to be in. Even lines in which I thought were illustrating Mr. Lear’s great qualities such as “but few think him pleasant enough” still has a tone of Mr. Lear not quite being good enough.
“How Pleasant to Know Mr. Lear”, appears to be a sarcastic approach to viewing Mr. Lear. I think the writer recognizes the emphasis that is placed on Mr. Lear, but uses this poem to view Mr. Lear in a different type of light. I think that the writer is jealous of Mr. Lear and how society has constructed him, so the writer has taken it upon him/herself to construct Mr. Lear in the image that they desire.