Uke-Song: "PEN OF RABBITS", a non-hunters' martial melody

Harlech castle, Wales

PARODY-LYRICS

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 !

WHAT NOW?

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& Setting words to music: "TRAILERPARKY", An Ancient Pastiche:

PASTICHE, including  PARODY-LYRICS:  (Pastiche implies the use of several sources,  even several art-forms, as a vehicle for the parody)

MUSICAL UNDEPINNINGS: "Greensleeves", traditional. 

ORIGINAL POEMS: Lyrics are based in part on the poems "Jabberwocky"1871, Lewis Carroll for stanza 1-8, and "La Belle Dame Sans Merci"1819, John Keats, for stanza 9. 

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, 2001 and 2014. 

Check our sister blogsite "Daily Illustrated Nonsense", to view the lyrics chordlessly by clicking HERE.

You can also view these lyrics and commentary displayed on a parody-lyrics website at AmIRight.com Post "Trailerparky"

The protagonist of this pseudo-medieval tale acted as treasurer of a de facto condominium involving 25 cottage properties at the northern edge of Lake Erie, in the Township of Malahide (yes!). Drama developed when the owner of a large adjacent shorefront property, under financial duress, threatened to sell a portion of his land (which included a sizable 'frog-pond') for a trailerpark development.

The traditional tune "Greensleeves"

TRAILERPARKY

(to the tune of "Greensleeves")

'Twas April, and the faulty stoves

Were piled beside the sagging gate;

All fish-flied were the poplar groves,

 With plumbing opened late.

Carroll and Alice Lidell
(fanciful portrait)

"Beware the Trailerpark, my son!

The johns that flush! porch swings that glide!

Beware E. coli counts, and shun

Approvious Malahide !"

At 'condo, sort-of' heads they shook:

Long floating loan-forms he prepares - 

So co-signed he, with the Private Three

At the Bank of M upstairs.

And as the roadway bills he paid

Erie-storms the clay did shift.

The drained Cement-and-Gravel Way

Lay rubbled ' neath the cliff.

  

Back tax! back tax! the Feds they forced

The neighbour's plans deflated twice !

He played his hand, and copped the land

At a freshly garnished price. 

And hast thou bought the Marshy-Flats ?

Come to the Tuck-Shop brunch !", they voice.

"Mosquito breeds, O Noxious Weeds !

But we have no other choice."  

'Twas August, and the slant-cut poles

 Were tied and turgid by the gate:

 All pansied were the Old-road's holes,

 Clay cliffs, west of the site of the story

 And the levy-cheques post-date.

By autumn, at the condo's shore

Did tires the tree-drift beach retread;

All frogsy was OUR pond, and for 

The moment books out-red.

 And this is why few snowbird here,

 Valve-closed or winter-watering,

 'Though sludge is filtered from the lake,

 And no bugs sting.

Lake Erie cliffs, looking west

La Belle Dame
 Sans Merci

Performing Notes

'Twas [Dm] April, and the [C] faulty [Am] stoves

Were [Dm] piled beside the [Am] sagging gate;

All [Dm] fish-flied [F] were the [C] poplar [Am] groves,

With [Dm] plumbing [A7] opened [Dm] late.

"Be[F]ware the Trailer[C]park, my [Am] son!

The [Dm] johns that flush! porch [A] swings that glide!

Be[F] ware E. coli [C] counts, and [Am] shun

Ap[Dm]provious [A7] Mala[Dm]hide !"

...............

...............

And [Dm] this is [F] why few [C] snowbird [Am] here,

Valve-[Dm] closed or winter-[Am]-watering,

'Though [Dm] sludge is [F] filtered [C] from the [Am] lake,

 And [Dm] no [A7] bugs [Dm] sting.

WHAT NOW?

Choice #1: To leave a comment, click on the comment-'widget' at the bottom of this page (or, if that fails, find an alternate e-mail on "pages").

Choice #2: To find another song-parody, use the listings on the web-version by reverse date in the clickable 'Blog-Archive' at the top of the right-hand column.

Choice #3: To return to our broad-spectrum blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense", click HERE.

If you aren't on the 'web-version', you can get there by clicking that choice ('view web-version') at the very bottom of this blog-page!