Nonsense Books · Chapter
Mr. and Mrs. Spikky Sparrow explained
Mr.
What happens
Mr. and Mrs. Spikky Sparrow express mutual concern about each other's health and lack of proper headwear. They decide to fly to London, where they purchase a hat, bonnet, gown, sash, and slippers. Dressed in their new finery, they return to their nest, and their children admire their transformed appearance, confident they will now avoid cold and pain and look like other people.
Themes in this chapter
Love and Marriage
Mr. and Mrs. Spikky Sparrow demonstrate mutual care and affection, addressing each other's worries and acting together to improve their situation.
Transformation and Adaptation
The sparrows transform their appearance by purchasing new clothes, adapting to social norms to 'look like other people' and avoid discomfort.
Characters to notice
- Mr. and Mrs. Spikky Sparrow
The central couple who worry about each other's health and lack of hats, then journey to London to buy proper clothing.
Key passages
“Mrs. Spikky Sparrow said, 'Spikky, darling! in my head / Many thoughts of trouble come, / Like to flies upon a plum. / All last night, among the trees, / I heard you cough, I heard you sneeze; / And thought I, 'It's come to that / Because he does not wear a hat!'”
Mrs. Sparrow tells her husband she has been worrying, comparing her anxious thoughts to flies on a plum, and that she heard him coughing and sneezing last night, which she attributes to his not wearing a hat.
Mrs. Sparrow expresses her concern for Mr. Sparrow's health, linking his cough and sneeze to his lack of headwear.
“Mr. Spikky said, 'How kind, / Dear, you are, to speak your mind! / All your life I wish you luck! / You are, you are, a lovely duck!'”
Mr. Sparrow thanks his wife for her honesty, wishes her well, and affectionately calls her a lovely duck.
Mr. Sparrow responds warmly to his wife's concern, using playful endearment.
“Let us both fly up to town: / There I'll buy you such a gown! / Which, completely in the fashion, / You shall tie a sky-blue sash on; / And a pair of slippers neat / To fit your darling little feet, / So that you will look and feel / Quite galloobious and genteel.”
Mr. Sparrow proposes they fly to town where he will buy her a fashionable gown with a sky-blue sash and neat slippers, so she will look and feel very elegant and refined.
Mr. Sparrow suggests a shopping trip to London to buy fashionable clothes, using the nonsense word 'galloobious' to describe the desired effect.