There was an old man with a beard, who said: 'It is just as I feared! Two owls and a hen, four larks and a wren have all built their nests in my beard.

On his headstone are inscribed these lines about Mount Tomohrit (in Albania) from Tennyson's poem To E. Lear's birthplace area is now marked with a plaque at Bowman's Mews Islington in London and his bicentenary during 2012 was celebrated with a variety of events exhibitions and lectures in venues across the world including an International Owl and Pussycat Day on his birthday. When Lear was about seven years old he began to show signs of depression possibly due to the instability of his childhood.

Edward Lear has been played in radio dramas by Andrew Sachs in The Need for Nonsense by Julia Blackburn (BBC Radio 4 9 February 2009) and by Derek Jacobi in By the Coast of Coromandel by Lavinia Murray (BBC Radio 4 21 December 2011). As an author he is known principally for his popular nonsense works which use real and invented English words.