Lyr Req: Triantiwontigongolope (C J Dennis)

30 Apr 04 - 12:09 PM (#1175070)
Subject: Lyr Req: triantiwontigongalope
From: freda underhill

Hi

does anyone have the words to triantiwontigongalope by CJ Dennis?


freda

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30 Apr 04 - 12:52 PM (#1175113)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: triantiwontigongalope
From: Allan C.

Try here, freda.

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30 Apr 04 - 12:56 PM (#1175119)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: triantiwontigongalope
From: Leadfingers

Might be fun to try to fit a tune to that one - Thanks both.

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30 Apr 04 - 01:00 PM (#1175121)
Subject: Lyr Add: THE TRIANTIWONTIGONGOLOPE (C J Dennis)
From: Allan C.

Heck, I might as well paste them here:

THE TRIANTIWONTIGONGOLOPE
by C J Dennis
Written in 1921.

There's a very funny insect that you do not often spy,
And it isn't quite a spider, and it isn't quite a fly;
It is something like a beetle, and a little like a bee,
But nothing like a wooly grub that climbs upon a tree.
Its name is quite a hard one, but you'll learn it soon, I hope.
So try:
Tri-
    Tri-anti-wonti-
       Triantiwontigongolope.

It lives on weeds and wattle-gum, and has a funny face;
Its appetite is hearty, and its manners a disgrace.
When first you come upon it, it will give you quite a scare,
But when you look for it again, you find it isn't there.
And unless you call it softly it will stay away and mope.
So try:
Tri-
    Tri-anti-wonti-
       Triantiwontigongolope.

It trembles if you tickle it or tread upon its toes;
It is not an early riser, but it has a snubbish nose.
If you snear at it, or scold it, it will scuttle off in shame,
But it purrs and purrs quite proudly if you call it by its name,
And offer it some sandwiches of sealing-wax and soap.
So try:
Tri-
    Tri-anti-wonti-
       Triantiwontigongolope .

But of course you haven't seen it; and I truthfully confess
That I haven't seen it either, and I don't know its address.
For there isn't such an insect, though there really might have been
If the trees and grass were purple, and the sky was bottle green.
It's just a little joke of mine, which you'll forgive, I hope.
Oh, try!
Tri-
    Tri-anti-wonti-
       Triantiwontigongolope.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This poem is thought to be in the public domain. If this is the case, you may print and distribute copies as you wish.
Poem Notes:
This is taken from a book published in 1921 C.J. Dennis' Book for Kids.
C.J. and his wife had no children of their own but his love of children is evident in this collection of beautiful children poems: - his foreward read:
....Too all good children over four
and under four and eighty
Be ye not over-prone to pore
On matters grave and weighty
Mayhap you'll find within this book
Some touch of youth's rare clowning
If you will condescend to look
and not descend to frowning.
The mind of one small boy may hold
odd fancies and inviting
To guide a hand unsure and old
that moves these days to writing
For hair once bright in days of yore
Grows grey (or somewhat slaty)
and now alas he's over four
though under four and eighty.

- C.J. Dennis

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30 Apr 04 - 01:11 PM (#1175127)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: triantiwontigongalope
From: freda underhill

thanks so much, Allan!

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30 Apr 04 - 08:35 PM (#1175436)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: triantiwontigongalope
From: Allan C.

From ABC Classic FM Breakfast - Word of the Day: Monday 21 July 2003

Triantiwontygong

Kel Richards writes

A triantiwontygong is a type of Bunyip peculiar to the Central Highlands of Victoria. During the Second World War (in the early 1940s, in fact) city children were being evacuated from Melbourne to the bush to escape any possible enemy bombing. And the bush kids used this triantiwontygong to scare, or embarrass or confuse the city kids. As in: "Did you see that?" he said in a hushed whisper while pointing to the scrubby bush they were passing through on their way to school. "No don't look now. It's a triantywontygong."
Interestingly there was an older slang word triantelope used for hairy spiders (such as huntsmen). The earliest citation for triantelope is from 1845.
Then in 1921 C J Dennis published A Book for Kids in which he combined both words (triantiwontygong and triantelope) to create his own mythical creature which he called "The Triantiwontigongolope."
It is something like a beetle, and a little like a bee,
But nothing like a wooly grub that climbs upon a tree.
Its name is quite a hard one, but you'll learn it soon, I hope.
So try: Triantiwontigongolope.
So wrote C J Dennis – giving us three creatures with impossibly similar names.

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30 Apr 04 - 09:05 PM (#1175458)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: triantiwontigongalope
From: open mike

http://www.pibburns.com/cryptost/bunyip.htm
hoping to find a picture...here are bunyips

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01 May 04 - 08:00 PM (#1176175)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: triantiwontigongalope
From: JennieG

The triantiwontigongalope is related to the Flying Ganzotan. That is any insect with wings that you can't identify!

Cheers
JennieG

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01 May 04 - 08:10 PM (#1176181)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: triantiwontigongalope
From: freda underhill

for further information on how to care for and nurture the flying ganzotan, see jOhn from Hull's Silliness from Hull site with a link to his site on care of stick insects.

Bob - you must have links to everyone and anyone in Oz, i think!

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19 Jun 07 - 08:31 AM (#2080944)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: triantiwontigongalope
From: Mr Happy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunyip

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05 Jul 07 - 09:07 PM (#2095196)
Subject: Triantiwontigongolope (C J Dennis)
From: GUEST,merla

Yes. here it is: http://www.middlemiss.org/lit/authors/denniscj/bookforkids/triantiwontigongolope.html

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05 Jul 07 - 11:59 PM (#2095292)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Triantiwontigongolope (C J Dennis)
From: Muttley

All I can add here (and Triantiwontigongolope is one of my all-time favourite poems - used to be able to recite it word-for-word once upon a time) is that All the kids in our district (a semi-rural one just outside Melbourne) used to refer to Hunstman Spiders ans either Triantelopes or Triantiwontigongolopes.

Spending most of my holidays at farms either in Western or North-eastern Victoria - depending on which half of the family I was 'farmed out' to (sorry about the pun) I was pretty impressed that all the kids there used the same two words for the same creature.

Muttley

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06 Jul 07 - 09:51 PM (#2096089)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Triantiwontigongolope (C J Dennis)
From: Rowan

Thanks for the words Allan C. However (pedant alert!), CJ Dennis (whose house I used to drive past when much younger) was from the southern hemisphere, where he would not have written
"But nothing like a wooly grub that climbs upon a tree."
or
"If you snear at it, or scold it, it will scuttle off in shame,"
but
"But nothing like a woolly grub that climbs upon a tree."
and
"If you sneer at it, or scold it, it will scuttle off in shame,"
I suspect.

Cheers, Rowan

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08 Nov 07 - 02:16 PM (#2189152)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Triantiwontigongolope (C J Dennis)
From: bellbird

I discovered Mudcat, happily, by accident after searching for the lyrics of Triantiwontigongolope (C J Dennis).
As a young Aussie girl I used to recite this delightful poem in our Primary School "Verse Speakers Choir" and thoroughly enjoyed myself! It ranked as my favourite along with "Bellbird"......"and down the dim gorges I hear the creek falling" .....I think that's how it goes.
I wanted to share the poem with two friends and all I could remember was the last line "Oh, try!
Tri-
    Tri-anti-wonti-
       Triantiwontigongolope.
Now I have found it, I shall enjoy saying it (to myself!)and transporting myself back to one of the happiest memories of my young student life.

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21 Apr 11 - 06:11 AM (#3139536)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Triantiwontigongolope (C J Dennis)
From: GUEST

Having just found this site, while researching C.J.Dennis, can anyone help me with the words of a poem, oft recited at my secondary school many years ago about someone going to a theatre and sitting behind someone who had a thread on his jacket that kept distracting the person behind - until 'he' grabbed at it and pulled and it kept coming until he had a pile of thread on the floor, and the person found, to his utter amazement on returning home, that his singlet had disappeared. Glenys Evans used to recite it, wonderfullly and I can't find her either!!!

Gwenda

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12 Jan 20 - 05:00 PM (#4027870)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Triantiwontigongolope (C J Dennis)
From: GUEST,keberoxu

I fear that
the catastrophic fires
may have done for these denizens of Oz ...

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12 Jan 20 - 06:26 PM (#4027889)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Triantiwontigongolope (C J Dennis)
From: JennieG

Never!

The Triantiwontigongolope will rise again.....

My theory (for what it's worth, remembering that I wasn't around in 1845 when the usage was first noted even if my children thought I was) was that "triantelope" was a corruption of "tarantula".

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