The Quangle Wangle

The day starts for me and my husband/best friend Steve, at about 5.20am when our alarm goes off, this early, so that we can get our daily bit of training in before the normal day starts at around 9am.

I make Steve a cup of tea and a coffee sweetened with a spoonful of Manuka honey for myself. We sip our first drinks of the day and watch Sky News. Then we turn to an American news channel and see what they are up to. Well, it’s the same as it is here, dominated by the political issues; speeches, forums and interviews. You tend to actually laugh out loud at some of the outrageous things that are being said. Well, when you first hear them that is. Then after a while, I am reminded of what parents used to say the children when they were cheeky or had misbehaved. “It’s not funny and it’s not clever”. I’d like a pound for each time I have heard that expression in the course of my life. Actually some of the things that are being said, and shown on our TV sets and without the slightest hesitation and certainly no apologies, are not funny. The whole scene right now is not funny, and I wonder who can possibly think that they are clever. 

Yesterday I was starting to clear some clutter out of our little back room when I found a paperback book jammed behind some other things that had dropped between a desk and a bookcase...... Housework is not my life’s mission. The title was; One Hundred Favourite Humorous Poems. When I picked it up, it had a postcard used as a marker in it. I opened it at that page. When I read it, I did laugh because I thought it sounded as if it was a spoof reference to Donald Trump. Maybe it’s just me. More than likely.

 

I have copied here the first and last verses. The rest of the poem refers to a variety of colourful visitors to his world and again it reminded me of Mr Trump. Sorry.  

The Quangle Wangle’s Hat

By Edward Lear 1812-1888

1

On top of the Crumpetty Tree

The Quangle Wangle sat,

But his face you could not see,

On account of his Beaver hat.

For his hat was a hundred and two feet wide,

With ribbons and bibbons, on every side

And bells, and buttons, and loops and lace,

So that nobody ever could see the face

Of the Quangle Wangle Quee. 

VI

And the Quangle Wangle said

To himself on the Crumpetty Tree, ---

‘When all these creatures move

What a wonderful noise there’ll be!’

And at night by the light of the Mulberry moon

They danced to the Flute of the Blue Baboon,

On the broad green leaves of the Crumpetty Tree,

And all were as happy as happy could be,

With the Quangle Wangle Quee.