A mandolin, my mandolin,
Not a guitar or a violin,
Not a tortoise or a pangolin,
Not an emperor or a mandarin,
Nor a statue nor a mannequin,
Nor a sedan chair nor a palanquin,
But a plectrum-plucky mandolin,
An eight-stringed maple mandolin
Whose strings go zing
And ring-a-ling-ling,
And dum-diddly-ding –
Music to make your heart sing –
Try it, it will make you grin
If you too learn to play the mandolin.