I WOULDN'T HAVE MISSED IT: Selected Poems of Ogden Nash

by Ogden Nash ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 20, 1975

Admirers of the works of the late Ogden Nash, assuming that the oeuvre was locked into the light-verse isolation ward and thereby immune from scholarly explications may be initially appalled by Archibald MacLeish's exegesis of: ""I sit in my office at 224 Madison Avenue/ And say to myself You have a responsible job, havenue?"" This says MacLeish, who supplies the Introduction, is "". . . a portrait in the Cinquecento manner with a glimpse of the city in the background."" But as one reads on through this fine 1931-1972 selection one is forced to agree with MacLeish's view that Nash, with his ""funnyman's"" entree, told us about things we didn't want to know and other serious matters dealt with by major poets and not generally read in the public sector. It's beautiful stuff--with something for everyone--from environmental commentary (""Yet just because [men] have two legs/ And come from storks instead of eggs/ They count the spacious firmament/ As something to be charged and sent"") through fleeting intestinal tremors (""Caesar Borgia. . . coming torgia. . ."") to Love (""Lots of people have stocks and bonds/ To further their romances/ I've cashed my ultimate Savings Stamp/ But nobody else has Frances""). The last poem in the book provides Nash's own recognition of the Janus visage of his verse: ""In my mind's reception room/ Which is what and who is whom?/ I notice when the candle's lighted/ Half the guests are uninvited./ And oddest fancies, merriest jests,/ Come from these forbidden guests.

Pub Date: Sept. 20, 1975

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1975

Categories: NONFICTION