HURRY, HURRY MARY DEAR and Other Nonsense Poems

The sparkle of Bodecker's unpremeditated, ear-tickling nursery rhymes in It's Raining Said John Twaining (1973) began to fade in Let's Marry Said the Cherry (1974) and here it is all but extinguished. More than ever, topics--such as proper dress and etiquette--that have been ridiculed to death are trotted past for one more twit (""A lettuce leaf is proper/ Suspended from the ear./ To wear Italian dressing/ is very much too dear"") and those few tripping, spry beginnings (""Milton Trimmer, ardent swimmer,/ swam to slim but got no slimmer"") too often fade out into repetitive doggerel, victims of weak ideas overextended. Unexceptional.