"On the Ning Nang Nong" is a poem by the comedian

Spike Milligan Terence Alan "Spike" Milligan (16 April 1918 – 27 February 2002) was an Irish actor, comedian, writer, musician, poet, and playwright. The son of an English mother and Irish father, he was born in British Raj, British Colonial India, where h ...

featured in his 1959 book '' Silly Verse For Kids''. In 1998 it was voted the UK's favourite comic poem in a nationwide poll, ahead of other nonsense poems by poets such as

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequel ...

and

Edward Lear Edward Lear (12 May 1812 – 29 January 1888) was an English artist, illustrator, musician, author and poet, who is known mostly for his literary nonsense in poetry and prose and especially his limerick (poetry), limericks, a form he popularised. ...

. This

nonsense verse Nonsense verse is a form of nonsense literature usually employing strong prosodic elements like rhythm and rhyme. It is often whimsical and humorous in tone and employs some of the techniques of nonsense literature. Limericks are probably the b ...

, set to music, became popular in Australia where it was performed weekly on the

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

children's programme Play School; however, it is now only shown on occasion. In December 2007 it was reported that, according to

OFSTED The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a Non-ministerial government department, non-ministerial department of Government of the United Kingdom, His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament of the U ...

, it is among the ten most commonly taught poems in primary schools in the UK. It features on the albums ''

No One's Gonna Change Our World ''No One's Gonna Change Our World'' is a charity album released in the United Kingdom on 12 December 1969 for the benefit of the World Wildlife Fund. The compilation, assembled by comedian Spike Milligan, includes two tracks from Milligan and on ...

'', ''There's A Bear In There'' and ''Play School Favourites'', and on the 'B' side of Milligan's own "

Badjelly the Witch ''Badjelly the Witch'' is a brief handwritten, illustrated story by Spike Milligan, created for his children, then printed in 1973. It was made into an audio and a video version. In 1975, in the planning for an audio version for the BBC "infan ...

Poem

The 18-line poem opens with: :On the Ning Nang Nong :Where the cows go bong! Several subsequent lines also use the phrase "Nong Nang Ning" or "Nong Ning Nang" (but never "Ning Nong Nang", "Nang Ning Nong" or "Nang Nong Ning"). The poem ends with the climax "Ning Nang Ning Nang Nong!" Various animals, plants and created objects "say" or, more often, "go" various sounds (capitalization in the original): cows go "Bong!", monkeys say "Boo!", trees go "Ping!", tea pots "Jibber-Jabber Joo", mice go "Clang!". Some do this more than once in the poem. The poem's

rhyme scheme A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a poem or song. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme; lines designated with the same letter all rhyme with each other. An example of the ABAB rh ...

is AABCCBDDBAACCDDAA. A musical version appears in the 1975 British sex farce ''

Confessions of a Pop Performer ''Confessions of a Pop Performer'' is a 1975 British sex-farce film. This second instalment continues the erotic adventures of Timothy Lea and is based on the novels written under the name by Christopher Wood. In this case, the original novel ...

''.

References

Humorous poems British poems Works by Spike Milligan {{child-lit-stub