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DPChallenge Forums >> Challenge Suggestions >> The works of Ogden Nash
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08/04/2020 03:24:27 AM · #1
famous for his poetry especially limericks would make an excellent challenge ....
08/04/2020 03:50:00 PM · #2
Nice idea. Many of his shorter, witty poems may be familiar, but he's written oh so much more. I have a volume of his, "The Face Is Familiar," and the bookplate inside its front cover has my mother's maiden name on it. Published 1941. 352 pages. He's written seven books, though I don't know if they're all filled with poems. To be fair the subtitle is "The Selected Verse Of Ogden Nash," so perhaps this particular volume shouldn't count towards the total. A real challenge would be to find a photograph that can't be matched up with one of his phrases. So it would be wide open but fun since so much of it is clever and whimsical. Just opened the book and casually spotted the line "Ride on gilded elephants," the preceding line being "Lovely girls in spangled pants." It's like dipping into a bible on helium.
Personally, I've come to forgive him for "The Bronx? No, thonx!" It was written in 1931 and, after decades of smarmy smirks and ignominy, he finally apologized in 1964 with

I wrote those lines, “The Bronx? No thonx”;
I shudder to confess them.
Now I’m an older, wiser man
I cry, “The Bronx? God bless them!”

Of course no one's ever heard of it, so in the main the snickers continue. Oh the unfairness of it all!
Sorry to have wandered off. It would be a challenge full of whimsy, smiles and enjoyment.
Thank you Nick.

Message edited by author 2020-08-04 15:54:06.
08/04/2020 04:27:42 PM · #3
I love Ogden Nash! That would be a fun challenge, especially since it would give me an excuse to re-read some of his poems. They're delightful.
08/04/2020 04:37:04 PM · #4
Could we call it "The Illustrated Ogden Nash"? :-) I like the idea...
08/04/2020 04:41:41 PM · #5
Originally posted by streetpigeon:

I wrote those lines, “The Bronx? No thonx”;
I shudder to confess them.
Now I’m an older, wiser man
I cry, “The Bronx? God bless them!”

I do believe he's more well-known for clever quatrains like this than for limericks (five lines, AABBA rhyme scheme using anapest meter), but I could be wrong ...
08/04/2020 06:16:39 PM · #6
Originally posted by GeneralE:

Originally posted by streetpigeon:

I wrote those lines, “The Bronx? No thonx”;
I shudder to confess them.
Now I’m an older, wiser man
I cry, “The Bronx? God bless them!”

I do believe he's more well-known for clever quatrains like this than for limericks (five lines, AABBA rhyme scheme using anapest meter), but I could be wrong ...

You're right.

An essay and some brief poems

******************

SQUABS – THE POETIC STYLE OF OGDEN NASH

In culinary terminology, according to Wikipedia, the squab is a young domestic pigeon, typically under four weeks old, or its meat. The meat is widely described as tasting like dark chicken. It is also the title of one of Ogden Nash’s brief, witty and delightful poems. His couplet begins Toward a better world I contribute my modest smidgin… If I call the poems I have chosen below Squabs, it is not to minimise their effectiveness or to diminish their resonance. It is, instead, to acknowledge how tasty the modest smidgin may be. Introducing a selection of the poetry, Anthony Burgess tried to write in the same vein and confessed his limitations: I am trying to imitate him here, but he is probably quite inimitable./My own talent for this sort of thing being limited and his virtually illimitable.

************

The Squab

Toward a better world I contribute my modest smidgin;
I eat the squab, lest it become a pigeon.

***

The Turtle

The turtle lives ‘twixt plated decks
Which practically conceal its sex.
I think it clever of the turtle
In such a fix to be so fertile.

Message edited by author 2020-08-04 18:25:53.
08/04/2020 06:39:04 PM · #7
If you like the quatrains writ by Nash
And you dash off one quick as a flash.
You might find (as did Ogden)
Sometimes you feel fogged-in
And yield to the editor’s /.

Message edited by author 2020-08-04 22:26:53.
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