[667] Reflections on Ice-Breaking

 From the modern-day master of the epigram:

Candy
Is Dandy
But liquor
Is quicker.

	-- Ogden Nash

The _other_ thing about epigrams (which I forgot to mention yesterday) is
that when they're done a-right, further comment is superfluous.

thomas.

[Minstrels Links]

"Common Cold" is a wonderful piece of hypochondriac hyperbole; the source of
that immortal phrase 'The Führer of the Streptococcracy', it's archived at
poem #325. The commentary accompanying the above poem also quotes (in
entirety) several of Nash's better known short pieces, including "The Cobra"
and his "Reflection on a Wicked World".

"P G Wooster, Just as he Useter" is the tribute of one comic genius to
another: poem #353.

while "Kipling's Vermont" is a very different, but equally accomplished
piece of sly satire: poem #388.

"Will Consider Situation", poem #542, showcases Nash's gift for the
long line.

And finally, "The Sniffle", poem #625, is just plain delightful.

[Biography]

 b. Aug. 19, 1902, Rye, N.Y., U.S.
 d. May 19, 1971, Baltimore, Md.

in full FREDERIC OGDEN NASH, American writer of humorous poetry who won a
large following for his audacious verse.

After a year at Harvard University (1920-21), Nash held a variety of
jobs--advertising, teaching, editing, bond selling--before the success of
his poetry enabled him to work full-time at it. He sold his first verse
(1930) to The New Yorker, on whose editorial staff he was employed for a
time. With the publication of his first collection, Hard Lines (1931), he
began a 40-year career during which he produced 20 volumes of verse with
such titles as The Bad Parents' Garden of Verse (1936), I'm a Stranger Here
Myself (1938), and Everyone but Thee and Me (1962). Making his home in
Baltimore, he also did considerable lecturing on tours throughout the United
States. He wrote the lyrics for the musicals One Touch of Venus (1943) and
Two's Company (1952), as well as several children's books.

His rhymes are jarringly off or disconcertingly exact, and his ragged
stanzas vary from lines of one word to lines that meander the length of a
paragraph, often interrupted by inapposite digressions. He said he learned
his prosody from the unintentional blunders of the notoriously slipshod poet
Julia Moore, the "Sweet Singer of Michigan."

	-- EB

From: "WILLIAM HOCKNELL" <Hocknellnat@>

I am actually looking for something by Ogden Nash that is not really a poem, Its something my grandfather taught me some of, but he cant remember
or find the whole thing (neither can I, for that matter)  It is written from the viewpoint of Archie the Cockroach, and starts out as "Well boss,
did it ever strike you that a hen regrets it just as much as the oriole when they wring her neck..." and goes on to say something about how no one feels sorry for the hen because she is not beautiful, etc.  I have tried looking at my high school library, but their selection is poor (to put it kindly); and i have looked at several other web sites but still cannot
find it. I was wondering if you could help, or knew of a good place to look... I would really like to find it!
ttfn,
Helen

From: INDsoldier97@

A GREAT POEM!

From: "WM Allums" <wmallums@>

I would like to find the Nash poem about banking

From: George Murphy <gemurph@>

Archie the cockroach is a character of Don Marquis, not Ogden Nash

From: Pete Wilson <pete@>


Heh! You asked who wrote about archy, the cockroach
who typed notes to his boss, a newspaperman, at night
by jumping onto the keys. He couldn't couldn't capital
anything because he couldn't use the shift key.

He usually started his notes with "Well, Boss ..."
just as he did in your quote, ""Well boss,
did it ever strike you that a hen regrets it just as
much as the oriole when they wring her neck..." 

These beautifully poignant and heartbreaking stories
about archy were written by Don Marquis, who was a
newspaperman himself, for the New York Sun I think.
Just as your grandfather did, my father introduced me
to archy many years ago.

The place to go to read a lot more about Don Marquis
and archy:

  http://www.donmarquis.com

You should be able to find archy's ruminations on the
hen on that site. And please don't miss "archy
interviews a pharaoh."

-- Pete Wilson    
   http://www.pwilson.net/