My favourite is the one that begins:

The moon is a madness, a madness of mine;
I made her of mustard and mulberry wine.

Every year since I can remember, my father has sung various versions of 'Deck us all with Boston Charlie' ...

My fave:

Once you were two, dear birthday friend,
In spite of purple weather.
But now you are three and near the end
As we grewsome together.

How fourthful thou, forsooth for you,
For soon you will be more.
But 'fore one can be three be two;
Before be five be four.

Oh, roar a roar for Nora,
Nora Alice in the night.
For she has seen Aurora
Borealis burning bright.

A furore for our Nora!
And applaud Aurora seen!
Where, throughout the summer, has
Our Borealis been?

and

The Keen and the Quing were quirling at quoits
In the meadow behind of the mere.
Tho' mainly the meadow was middled with mow,
An heretical hitherto here.

The Prince and the Princess were plaiting the plates
And prating quite primly the peer.
And that's why the Duchess stuck ducks on the Duke
For no one was over to seer.

I could go on and on. Kelly was the greatest (well, OK, Herrimann too), and days like these he's sorely missed, I think.

D

Unfortunately I returned the book yesterday so I cannot easily provide an conrete example, but I Go Pogo is chock full of political fun. The two major US parties, socialist and communist rhetoric, organized labor, and soapbox campaigning all receive their share of satire. I'll have to see whether they've got the next volume.

I love his spring song: "When the bullrushes out / And the cowslips about..."

How about the great Pogo poem:

I was stirrin' up a stirrup cup
With a stolen sterling stein,
When I chanced upon a ladle
Who was once my Valentine ...?

Let me join the club and I will supply the rest of the poem.

OK, you're in. Supply!

Here is the poem in its entirety, as best as I recall after memorizing it over fifty (!) years ago:

I was stirrin' up a stirrup cup
With a stolen sterling stein,
When I chanced upon a ladle
Who was once my Valentine.
"Oh, whence that wince,
My wench?" quoth I.
She sighed and said, "Oh Sir,
My papa ain't been stirrin'
Since my mama's been in stir."

Another favorite;

One of the characters says,

"How much wood could a woodchunk chunk, if a wookchunk could chunk wood?" and (probably) Albert says, "Great! Or how about: How much ground round could a hound dog hog if a ground hog were round ground?"

[correct "wookchunk" to "woodchunk" in the above posting, please].

One final correction, and the poem goes:

I was stirrin' up a stirrup cup
With a stolen sterling stein,
When I chanced upon a ladle
Who was once my Valentine.
(Natural, this was a ladle I used to spoon with.)
"Oh, whence that wince,
My wench?" quoth I.
She sighed and said, "Oh Sir,
My papa ain't been stirrin'
Since my mama's been in stir."

An excellent addition to our little anthology -- many thanks!

One of my favorites is:
'Do you herd sheep' my grandpa said,
my granma lept in fright!
'The grammer's wrong', to me she sighed,
'have you heard sheep' is right.
I think Churchy recited it, along with his banjo.

Kelly had his dark side too - as evidence by:

"The gentle journey jars to stop,
the drifting dream is done.

The long gone goblins loom ahead,
the deadly, that we thought were dead,
stand waiting - every one."

There were other greats, like "The Prince of Pompadoodle" "Lines upon a tranquil brow" and many others.

I remember this one but don't know the name of it:

A song not for now
You need not put stay
The tune for the was
Can be sung for today
The notes of the does not
Will sound as the does
Today you can sing for the will be that was

Actually I memorized a whole bunch of these, as I used to sing them & play them on the clarinet, and still remember them 40+ yrs later. Frinstance:

Have you ever, while pondering
The ways of the morn
Thought to stop just a bit, just a drop in the horn?
To pour in the evening, or late afternoon,
Or during the night when we're shining the moon?
Have you ever cried out, while counting the snow,
Or watching the tomtit warble hello:
"Break out the cigars, this life is for squir'ls;
We're off to the drugstore, to whistle at girls!"