I’m looking for a children’s poem book published probably in the 1950s (it was read to me in the late 1950s-early 1960s) that included a poem with the line, “Elephang, Pelephant, walla walla welephant,” or something like that.
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Makes me think of Laura E. Richards’ ‘Eletelephony’, though that only gets us partway.
It’s not from a poetry book, but:
Jimmy Pimmy
Is a Wimmy
Elephant Pelephant
Is a Welephant
Cow Pow
Is a vow
p.49 ‘Moving into Skills of Communication,’ by ERIC
Eletelephony
Once there was an elephant,
Who tried to use the telephant—
No! no! I mean an elephone
Who tried to use the telephone—
(Dear me! I am not certain quite
That even now I’ve got it right.)
Howe’er it was, he got his trunk
Entangled in the telephunk;
The more he tried to get it free,
The louder buzzed the telephee—
(I fear I’d better drop the song
Of elephop and telephong!)
If it is that poem (my first thought, hi, Susan!), it’s by Laura Elizabeth Richards and it’s in various collections of children’s poetry.
Thanks for these replies (I made the inquiry), but the Laura Richards poem is not the one I was read as a child.