) APR 25 (2025) singable satire: 'PEN OF RABBITS'

 MUSICAL UNDERPINNINGS: "Men of Harlech", traditional Welsh hymn

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, August 2013.

PARODY-LYRICS LINK: To return to the corresponding post on "Daily Illustrated Nonsense" click HERE. 
(You can also view the lyrics and commentary (without images or chords, at the  parody-lyrics site where they were originally posted online)  at AmIRight.com Post""

Charlotte Church, child diva
 sings "Men of Harlech"

PEN of RABBITS

(to the traditional tune of "Men of Harlech")

Welch rare-bit / "rabbit?"

 

Singable Introduction:

[1] Charlotte Church aged 13, recorded the traditional ‘Men of Harlech’ 1998.

[2] Ogden Nash’s 2-line poem, ‘The Rabbits’

[3] Dr R. Brasch discusses the origins of ‘Welsh rabbit’ in ‘How Did It Begin’ , MJF Books, 2006.

[4] herbivorous mammals in a zoologic order which includes rabbits and hares.

[5] Best-known spoof  - a Boy-Scout song based on the ancient British tradition of fighting naked in woad dye -  by Eton housemaster W. Hope-Jones, ‘HoJo’, published 1921.

[6] Coniglio = rabbit  (Italian) 










Performing Notes

Enjoy chord-charts and lyrics at the Corktown Ukulele Jam songbook:
Corktunes: Pen of Rabbits

PEN of RABBITS

(to the tune of "Men of Harlech")

Welsh 'rarebit';
no rabbits harmed 

Singable Introduction:
Still today caer Harlech perches,

Dominating YouTube searches - 

Startling, stirring [1], song of Church's

Steals your breath away.

Here’s a song about Welsh Rare-bit, 

Squarely dealing with the hare-bits --

Seen on fare-bills quite a fair bit,

Patrons seem perplexed.

Rabbit Welsh –- offensive nomen-

-clature used by Saxon foemen ?

“No Welsh eats, but cheese and dough, man,

‘less they poach some game.” [2]

Meat-free choice? (Just ask your hostess.)

Beer-and-cheese-melt over toast; its

Celtic fans applaud and boast, it’s

Cambria’s national dish.

Some meat-shunners might eschew it

Thinking it a hunter’s stew –- but 
It lacks lagomorphs [3], that’s true –- Bugs

Outwits Elmer Fudd!

Rare-bit search is Brasch’s [2]

Hare terse-verse is Nash’s [4]                 

‘HoJo’ wrote the spoof ‘Woad Ode’ [5]

Coniglio [6] penned some flashes.

Hail a dish that harms no hopsters;

Not how Newberg hassles lobsters,

Fwycassees can fweak out sqwabsters --

Free the Cornish hen!

Easter rabbit hunt, New Zealand

Sadly, elsewhere, butchered rabbit

Satisfies game-lovers’ habits;

Easter special –- Braised Brunch-Basket:

Bunny-love abused.

Hard life in the burrows,

Where bereavement’s thorough.

Peters sad, their mom or dad

Got skewered for lunch ‘al burro’ [7].

Hail a world that harms no hopsters,

Fricassees make quail no squabsters,

Calves should escape escalope, sirs !

Peace in field and warren !

APR 15, 2025: progress in poetry, TERMINAL EXCLAMATIONS: final call #2 [7]

 

These blogposts will give you more understanding and some helpful examples related to a type of  limerick-variation indulged in by the authors. To see the whole spectrum of our efforts, you might want to take the time to review "A Corner of the Poet's World: LIMERICK VARIATIONS".

prior posted poems (final call #1)
ANYTHING BUT!, CAN'T COMPLAIN!, DON'T TOUCH!, EGAD!, HOLY MOLY!, I'M SOLD!.

CURRENT CONTENTS (final call #2)
KA-POW!
KER-PLUNK!
NO WAY!

OUT OF SIGHT!
OY, GEVALT!

YIKES!
YIPPEE!

 

Authors' Note: 

Ka-pow! (variant kerpow!): comic-book type interjection for a noise emitted when a blow is landed in a fight (often involving a super-hero)

Line 6: occasionally used sixth line of a limerick, unheard of in the early days of the modality, finding some currency among modern authors. See our poem on "Addendum-icitis" HERE. 

The limericks written by Edward Lear and his contemporaries a century ago often included repetition of the poem's key word at the end of the final line.

Authors' Note: Kerplunk is an onomatopoeic expression for the sound produced as a non-buoyant object suddenly sinks below the watery surface.

Authors' Note: The expletive "out of sight" seems to be disordinately used by the younger generation (even when the target of wonderment is well within view).

 trombenyk: Yiddish for a ne'er-do-well, often a braggart

oy, gevalt (oy-guh-VAHLT): phrase borrowed from Yiddish; an exclamation expressing shock, surprise or disapproval

Authors' Note: Yikes and its variant yoicks, are interjections expressing shock or alarm.

Authors' Note:  As shown by verses collected at OEDILF, the slang term chippy has a spectrum of slang meanings including 'prostitute/loose woman', 'argumentative' and 'fish-and-chips eatery'. Where we live, the first two uses are in effect. In the US, postal zip-codes roughly identify the location of one's residence.

GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR WEB-EXPLORERS: 

To resume your review of the sequence of daily titillations on our related blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense", click HERE. Once you arrive, you can select your time frame of interest from the calendar-based listings at the bottom of the page, and check the daily offerings for any month from the start of 2020 through the summer of 2026. 

As of March, 2026, there are 2,000 unique entries available on the daily blog, displaying individual poems (often illustrated) and wordplay, but also with some photo-collages and parody song-lyrics. 

Most of these key elements of our work are assembled here on "Edifying Nonsense" in topic-based collections.

The "Daily" format, a formidable mix of genres has the advantage of including song-lyrics, videos and other material that are not shown here on this topic-based blog.

APR 10, 2025: DEATH and the afterlife #2 [5]

The current blogpost represents continuation of an earlier post, dealing with wider cardiologic issues, entitled  'DEATH and the AFTERLIFE, celestial #1'  displayed on April 10, 2024. 

previous poetic posts 

(death, plus)#1: cardiac arrest, decease in the crease, dining in Heaven, end-of-life care, garbage in Heaven, giving up the ghost.

CURRENT CONTENTS: (#2 -- April 10, 2025)
Ghostbusters
Heavenly pie
Homes in Heaven (Shemayim)
Last breath
Leaving the planet

Authors' Note: My partner's sweet apple pie is 'to die for', and so is the strawberry pie pictured above..

Authors' Note: 

chutzpah (Yiddish): shameless audacity

Shemayim (Hebrew): heaven

Authors' Note: The above verse was inspired by an essay by Mal Abrams, who named the eternally unsatisfactory restaurant 'Feh'.

 Author's Note:  Although the short forms 'Will' and 'Bill' may be casually interchanged as first names (short forms of ‘William’), the nouns 'will' (as in 'last will and testament') and 'bill' are generally used with more careful scrutiny. ‘Will’ and ‘testament’ being essentially synonyms, the expression is a prototypical example of the redundant binomial expressions that seem to be loved by lawyers.

    Subtle differences in the form of idioms may underwrite important differences in meaning. ‘At last’ and ‘at the last’ seem similar, but in fact their usage and meaning differs considerably.

(Note that the three stanzas of this "brief saga" can be found with more photos and in more readily legible format on the blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense"; click HERE.) 

GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR WEB-EXPLORERS: 

To resume your review of the sequence of daily titillations on our related blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense", click HERE. Once you arrive, you can select your time frame of interest from the calendar-based listings at the bottom of the page, and check the daily offerings for any month from the start of 2020 until July 2025. 

As of July 20, 2025, there are 2,000 unique entries available on the daily blog, displaying individual poems (often illustrated) and wordplay, but also with some photo-collages and parody song-lyrics. 

Most of the key elements, such as this one, are also assembled here on "Edifying Nonsense" in topic-based collections.

The "Daily" format, a formidable mix of genres, also has the advantage of including song-lyrics, videos and other material that are not shown here on this topic-based blog.

APR 5, 2025: REVERSING VERSE: classic wordplay, palindrome-poems#6 [6]

    This post is a continuation of 'CLASSIC BIDIRECTIONAL WORDPLAY', as posted on this blog on April 5, 2020 (palindromes#1), April 5, 2021 (palindromes#2), April 5, 2022 (palindromes#3 -- reserve), April 5, 2023 (palindromes#4), and April 5, 2024 (palindromes#5).

  

previous poetic posts (Note that captions are available for poems displayed on "Daily Illustrated Nonsense" in slide format as of 2024).

(palindromes#1): A dim 'No' from Ida. A man, a plan, a canal... A Santa at NASA. A Toyota's a Toyota. Able ere Elba. An igloo! Cool, Gina! 

(palindromes#2): Dennis sinned. Do geese see God? Dogma: I am God. Drawn onward. Emil's lime.

(palindromes#3): z, z, z, z, z, z.

(palindromes#4): Flee to me, remote elf. Gnu dung. Go hang a salami... Lonely Tylenol. Madam, I'm Adam. Mix a maxim.

(palindromes#5): Mr. Owl ate my metal worm. Never odd or even. No 'D'; no 'L; -- London. No left felon. No lemon, no melon. No sir, prison.

CURRENT CONTENTS (#6):
No 'X' in 'Nixon'.
Racecar.
Saw- and see- lines.
Sex at noon taxes.
Sex of foxes.
Step on no pets.

Authors' Note: 

mike: short form for microphone, used more commonly for 'announcing', but sometimes used for 'denouncing' (condemning or attacking openly).

   Somehow, the misleading statement ‘No X in Nixon’ achieved the status of a famous palindrome. The astute analyst might realize that palindromes are inherently poor tools for orthography.

   On the other hand, here are three 'magical palindromes’ that provide correct spelling information:

No K in Nixon; no X in Nikon.

No C in iron; no R in icon.

No S in union. “No!”, in unison. 

Authors' Note: Embedded within the verse are eight palindromic phrases, each in italics and green font, separated from each other by semicolons.   This perseverating nonsense may be partly explained by the author having driven a 2002 Toyota Camry as his only automobile since 2009. That no car can compete for efficiency, value and longevity is embodied in the classic palindromic phrase A Toyota's a Toyota (see the linked previous post for further discussion.)

For more "classic palindromes", please proceed to the seventh bidirectional journey by clicking  HERE.

For more "classic palindromes", please proceed to the seventh bidirectional journey by clicking  HERE.

GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR WEB-EXPLORERS: 

To resume your review of the sequence of daily titillations on our related blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense", click HERE. Once you arrive, you can select your time frame of interest from the calendar-based listings at the bottom of the page, and check the daily offerings for any month from the start of 2020 through the summer of 2026. 

As of March, 2026, there are 2,000 unique entries available on the daily blog, displaying individual poems (often illustrated) and wordplay, but also with some photo-collages and parody song-lyrics. 

Most of these key elements of our work are assembled here on "Edifying Nonsense" in topic-based collections.

The "Daily" format, a formidable mix of genres has the advantage of including song-lyrics, videos and other material that are not shown here on this topic-based blog.