Lyrics for Singable Satire: "ICELANDIC SAGA 2015"

PARODY SONG-LYRICS

ORIGINAL SONG: The melody for the spiritual ballad "Summertime" from the George Gershwin opera "Porgy and Bess".

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio (registered pseudonym) and Dr. GH, August 2018. 

EVOLUTION of the LYRICS: The song-lyrics originated as limerick verses composed by Giorgio Coniglio 2017, and compiled in January 2018. The details of the lyrics were based on GC's family trip to Iceland in June 2015. Most of the verses also appear, mildly modified, in the online limerick dictionary OEDILF.com. They were subsequently adopted as a parody-song collage, and posted on GC's blog, at that time known as 'Ukable Parodies'. 

SONGLINK:  Our whole series of songs can be found in a friendly format for ukulele (and guitar)-players on our blog  "SILLY SONGS and SATIRE". Click here to proceed to this site: it also has a calypso-style song derived from the same visit to Iceland in June 2015 under the title "Nordic Journal: Island in the Sun".                                   

CONTENTS: titles (OEDILF listing)

1. Iceland / Ísland  
2. Geysir: OEDILF 
3. Eyjafjallajökull / E15 
4. Second-Hand Geyser
5. Stopover in Reykjavik 

ICELANDIC SAGA

(to the tune of "Summertime") 

1. In the far North Atlantic there’s dry land:
Friendly Iceland – it’s my kind of island.
You’ll be welcomed in Ísland *; cool and damp but at-peace land; 
Summer-sun-all-day-but-you-won’t-fry land.

2. Tourists learn the Norse thermal god plays here;
The Icelandic locale known as ‘Geysir’.
From hot pools steam erupts - belching after he sups.
Then they head for the sign (that says),“Tour Bus Stays Here.”

3. E15, Iceland stratovolcano,
Spews out fog that can clog up your plane, Oh
If explain it I must - it’s just ashes and dust;  
Can’t they flush it away with some Drano?

4. A cheap gift: though Björn thought he’d surprise her,
Björg rejected his second-hand geyser,                                              
“What I’d prize is a freezer. Your poor wife, why displease her?
It just proves you’re a nasty old miser.”

5. If you’re planning an Iceland stopover:
Avoid months with an 'R', like October;  
And a Reykjavik warning! Bars open til morning  

With patrons not prone to stay sober.

* pronounced as EES-lahndt.

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HERPETOLOGIC VERSE: More REPTILES

A continuation of a previous post on this topic 

   

 Readers who enjoy poetry describing the natural world around them with illustrative images and informative text, might also enjoy these blog-offerings, each a collage of verses on a wider topic...

Verses about Geysers, Sep '18
Verses about Frogs, Jan '19
Verses about Trees, Apr '19
Verses about Reptiles, Jun '19
Verses about Waterfowl, June '19
Verses about Waterfowl (part #2), July '19
Verses about Trees (part #2), Aug '19

Verses about Insects, Sep '19

Verses about Waterfowl (part #3), Apr '20

Verses about Reptiles, (part #2), May '20, as above.

AND, continuing into the future ...

Verses about Waterfowl (part #4 - Loons), Aug '20.

Verses about Waterfowl (part #5), Dec '20. 

The earlier post about reptiles in June 2019 included the following illustrated verses:

        

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio (registered pseudonym) and Dr. GH, April 2019. Today's verses are under review, or have have been finally accepted for web-publication at OEDILF.com, an online humour dictionary that has accumulated over 105,000 carefully edited poems. 

PHOTOS: Unless otherwise noted, embedded photographs were taken with and transferred from Giorgio's cellphone, then formatted using  Powerpoint software. No photographic subjects were reimbursed for participating in this undertaking. 

BACKGROUND:  "herpetology" - the branch of zoology dealing with reptiles and amphibians. Readers should note that snakes have intentionally been given short shrift in this poetic idyll owing to the marked aversion by the editor's life-partner. 

Authors' Note: A profusion of tiny setae (filament-hairs) on the lizards' palm-pads, as shown by electron microscopy, explain the gecko's unusual gravity-defying mobility.

Gila monsters are found in southern California, Arizona and northern Mexico. They should enjoy ongoing changes in our climate.

green anole, appearing gray, climbing down fencepost

same anole, 2 minutes later

Nature-lovers , academic herpetologists, wordplay enthusiasts, wildlife photographers, Giorgio's relatives, and just everyday folks have united in their demand for more verses on this topic!

So, please follow this link!

If you want to resume daily titillations on our blog 'Daily Illustrated Nonsense', click HERE. Once you arrive, you can select your time frame of interest from the calendar-based listings in the righthand margin, and check the daily offerings for any week in the years 2020 and 2021. (There are now, September 2022, almost 1000 daily entries on the Daily blog, and most of these are also presented here on 'Edifying Nonsense' in topic-based collections.)

VIRAL VERSE: PANDEMIC POETRY

SATIRE COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio and Dr. GH, March and April, 2020. Many of this group of terse verses has also been posted on Facebook, and most have also appeared individually as entries on our blog 'Daily Illustrated Nonsense' since March 2020.

Hello! I'm your social 
distancing trainer!

SOCIAL MEDIA: Giorgio has responded to the current crisis by sticking his toe in social media, and if you look hard you may be able to find him intermittently on Facebook and Twitter (#ScHurwitz - 16 'tweets' so far).  

GOING VIRAL!

Authors' Note:

cetacean: pertaining to whales, dolphins or porpoises

Authors' Note: This verse, inspired by OEDILF editor MikeAq's experience with housecleaning during the COVID-19 era, imagines the broad spectrum of protective measures needed in the corporate or institutional setting.

Authors' Note: 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to us!

Authors' Note: 

B.Y.O.B.  bring your own booze (bottle)

D.Y.O.D.  do your own dishes, an analogous motto proposed for software-enhanced 'remote get-togethers' via internet

potlatch:  a ceremonial West Coast aboriginal feast, at which highly valued possessions are given away to enhance the host’s prestige

Zoom: software for interactive on-line meetings

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Inspired by OGDEN NASH - a) NASH's LIMERICKS

SATIRE COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio and Dr. GH, March 2020, updated February 2022.

Authors' Note:  Ogden Nash, the prolific humor contributor to the New Yorker, and author of many compendia of humorous poetry, has inspired countless wannabe authors, including the present writing-team. His short poems, often anthropomorphic comments on the lives and habits of animals, have been imitated but seldom equaled.  Today's poetic offering by GC and Dr. GH relate to a popular near-limerick, whose authorship has been attributed incorrectly to ON. But, Nash did contribute a number of classics to the limerick genre, and these are displayed further down in the post.

HERE ARE SOME OF NASH'S ACTUAL LIMERICKS

DIRECTION FOR WEB-TRAVELLERS: 

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