On the Ning Nang Nong
Where the Cows go Bong!
and the monkeys all say BOO!
There’s a Nong Nang Ning
Where the trees go Ping!
And the tea pots jibber jabber joo.
On the Nong Ning Nang
All the mice go Clang
And you just can’t catch ’em when they do!
So its Ning Nang Nong
Cows go Bong!
Nong Nang Ning
Trees go ping
Nong Ning Nang
The mice go Clang
What a noisy place to belong
is the Ning Nang Ning Nang Nong!!
Summary and Analysis
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Editors Rating
Meaning of the Poem
On the Ning Nang Nong is a poem by the poet Spike Milligan. The poem was featured in the book named Silly Verse For Kids which was published in 1959. 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 and Edward Lear.
This nonsense verse, set to music, became popular in Australia where it was performed weekly on the ABC children’s programme Play School, however, it is now only shown on occasion. In December 2007 it was reported that, according to OFSTED, 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, There’s A Bear In There and Play School Favourites, and on the ‘B’ side of Milligan’s own “Badjelly the Witch”.
