Prologue : 'It's absurd...'

I. Fledging. One foot off the ground ; With the girls ; 'O Sussex!'

II. Perching. To the zoo ; Knowsley ; Tribes and species ; Make 'em laugh ; Mountains

III. Flying. 'Rome is Rome' ; Happy as a hedgehog ; Third person ; Excursions ; Derry down Derry : Nonsense, 1846 ; 'Something is about to happen' ; 'Calmly, into the dice-box' ; 'All that amber'

IV. Tumbling. The brotherhood ; Meeting the poet ; An owl in the desert ; Half a life : Corfu and Athos ; Bible lands ; A was an ass ; Home again, Rome again ; No more

V. Circling. 'Overconstrained to folly' : Nonsense, 1861 ; 'Mr Lear the artist' ; 'From island unto island' ; 'What a charming life an artist's is!' ; 'The "marriage" phantasy' ; 'Gradually extinguified'

VI. Calling. Sail away : Cannes, 1868-1869 ; 'Three groans for Corsica!' ; Degli inglesi ; Nonsense songs and More nonsense ; Restless in San Remo ; India ; Families ; Laughable lyrics

VII. Swooping. Shocks ; The Villa Tennyson ; 'As great a fool as ever I was' ; Pax vobiscum'.