“Good morning. Heavy subject and (hence heavy reading) this week’s column of yours. Third column eighth line — the word image could be replaced with imagery or images.”
The brief and pointed message from my father last Saturday couldn’t have been better-timed. I am delighted to write about Frederic Ogden Nash, whose 113th birthday falls on August 19. Frankly, I am tempted to add verse after verse and call the article done.
After all, his light writing is self-explanatory, amusing and exhilarating. I am making a slightly laboured point here but Nash was born in Rye. No wonder his writing is wry and wonderful. Okay, okay, I am done.
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Lot of us are familiar with some of his iconic quotes; for instance in toasts: “
There is a dark side to his writing too.
For instance, when he speaks of conscience in ‘Reflection on The Fallibility of Nemesis’: “
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Of course, everyone loves something light-hearted and funny. But that’s not why Nash is so special. It’s his ability to be relevant and to be loved, years after the poetry was first written. His poems aren’t gimmicky — they are funny, wise and filled with interesting observations.
I always laugh at his description of a ‘Tableau at Twilight’. The poet is enjoying the dusk when a child sits next to him. Seems harmless enough, except the child is bearing an ice-cream cone. The poet then pleads, “ Coniferous child, when vanilla melts/I’d rather it melted somewhere else./Exit child with remains of cone./I sit in the dusk. I am all alone/Muttering spells like an angry Druid/Alone, in the dusk, with the cleaning fluid. ” I am reminded of my father — may be, pointed message, coniferous child!
A few topics feature prominently in Nash’s poems.
Fatherhood, for instance. He speaks about his fears in the delightful ‘Song To Be Sung By The Father Of Infant Female Children’: “ My heart leaps up when I behold/A rainbow in the sky/Contrariwise, my blood runs cold/When little boys go by./For little boys as little boys/No special hate I carry/But now and then they grow to men/And when they do, they marry. ”
Nash’s health was a favourite topic in his later years. A lifelong conversation with his body became ‘Bed Riddance.’ Here’s another gem, this time on the germ- “ A mighty creature is the germ/Though smaller than the pachyderm./His customary dwelling place/ Is deep within the human race./His childish pride he often pleases/By giving people strange diseases./Do you, my poppet, feel infirm? You probably contain a germ. ”
To me, his verses on animals and birds makes Ogden Nash a memorable writer. Sample a few: “I don’t mind eels/except as meals. ” And “ The ostrich roams the great Sahara./Its mouth is wide, its neck is narra./It has such long and lofty legs/I’m glad it sits to lay its eggs. ”
Some poems are legendary. “ A flea and a fly in a flue/Were imprisoned, so what could they do?/Said the fly, “let us flee!”/”Let us fly!” said the flea./So they flew through a flaw in the flue. ” Or the poem about the cow. “ The cow is of the bovine ilk/One end is moo, the other, milk. ”
Dog lovers will agree with this one: “ The truth I do not stretch or shove/When I state that the dog is full of love./I’ve also found, by actual test/A wet dog is the lovingest. ”
Who wouldn’t want children to learn about other little ones from ‘The Guppy’? “ Whales have calves/Cats have kittens/Bears have cubs/Bats have bittens/Swans have cygnets/Seals have puppies/But guppies just have little guppies. ”
Oh, the sheer joy of reading these poems out loud! Ogden Nash proves time and again that simple fun does go a long and lovely way.
Dr. Srividya is a poet and teacher. Read her work at www.rumwrapt.blogspot.in