One never knows what strange brain-spasms may come when one awakes (the Dylan-Shakespeare thing, you might recall, began with a groggy, waking earworm of Dylan's "Crash on the Levee" rattling through my old brain) and this morning was no exception--just a random fact-recall: that someone had done a parody of the children's song-dance the Hokey-Pokey, in ponderous Shakespearean diction--of course a far, iambic-pentameter cry from the simple bouncing doggerel of the original.
I also recalled that while the parody had considerable charm and humor, it rather overdid the heightened-language mannerisms and other buffooneries, and could probably be improved. After giving the dog her scheduled pain-killer, I whipped out a sheet of paper and over breakfast cereal my brain delighted me by quickly cranking out--
Thine left foot, thrust thou outwardly,
Thine left foot then draw in,
Thine left foot, once again, outwardly,
O thine foot dost thou launch into full-spirited agitation,
Enact the dance called Hokey-Pokey, thus,
Turn thy body round, and this compriseth sum and approbation. (etc.)
Um, okay, now to prove I haven't totally lost my Elgin Marbles...
PS: Yep, a little of the eternal revisionism the next day (jeez, actually forgot the original lyrics, which can vary a bit: http://www.metrolyrics.com/the-hokey-pokey-lyrics-brave-combo.html ).
Polish, polish... ah, the ridiculous ways I avoid that damn Dylan article. Oh yes, here be the swings and errors of the original parody: http://www.phantomranch.net/folkdanc/articles/hokeypokey.htm
