by Greg Cornell
“The Eel”
I don’t mind eels
Except as meals,
And the way they feels.”
This poem typifies the work of Ogden
Nash, a man of great “light verse” poetry.
Light verse poetry is
sometimes satirical, sometimes funny, but usually never emotional or
weighty. That’s not to say that Ogden Nash was not a man of deep poetry.
Although not all of his works were silly and just to make people laugh. Most
of Nash's poetry was written for children, for people of all ages, mainly to
make them laugh; as he said himself in an interview, "... my field -- the
minor idiocies of humanity".
Born on a hot summer day, August 19th, 1902, Fredrick Ogden Nash came into this world, in the arms of Edmund Strudwick Nash and Mattie Chenault Nash in Rye, New York. Due to financial problems in his family, he had to drop out of college and get a job. He worked as a bond salesman and claims that “the only bond I ever sold was to my god-mother. Nash went on to work as an advertising copywriter in Doubleday and Company, a publishing company. He was a staff member of the magazine, The New Yorker and pursued his career in writing and literature.
Nash’s poetry most often rhymed, though, not all of the time. Nash liked to vary his work. For example, the syllables per line varied, from two to sixty-seven. Talk about a long range! As well as that, he added prose poetry to his portfolio of 1,300 poems. He mainly started writing for children in the late 50’s, coming out with six books. Yet, he continued to write for adults as well. And to add even more, he wrote plays and movies as well.
During his childhood, when he was seven years old to be exact, Ogden Nash came down with a serious eye infection. This infection required him to stay in a darkened room, in bed, for nearly a whole year. Think how lonely he must have been, and especially not being able to write poetry due to the lack of light.
- The Cricket of Carador
1964] (poetry) 1964