Section: «Poems»
Verse (ancient Greek ὁ στίχος — row, structure), a term in versification used in several meanings:
artistic speech organized by division into rhythmically commensurate segments; poetry in the narrow sense; in particular, it implies the properties of versification of a particular tradition ("antique verse", "Akhmatova's verse", etc.);
a line of poetic text organized according to a certain rhythmic pattern ("My uncle of the most honest rules").
The Clean Plater
Some singers sing of ladies' eyes,And some of ladies lips,Refined ones praise their ladylike ways,And course ones hymn their hips.The Oxford Book of..
© Ogden Nash
The Cantaloupe
One cantaloupe is ripe and lush,Another's green, another's mush.I'd buy a lot more cantaloupeIf I possessed a fluoroscope.
© Ogden Nash
Reflection On Caution
Affection is a noble quality;It leads to generosity and jollity.But it also leads to breach of promiseIf you go around lavishing it on red-hot momise.
© Ogden Nash
Pretty Halcyon Days
How pleasant to sit on the beach,On the beach, on the sand, in the sun,With ocean galore within reach,And nothing at all to be done! No letters..
© Ogden Nash
Lines Indited With All The Depravity Of Poverty
One way to be very happy is to be very richFor then you can buy orchids by the quire and bacon by the flitch.And yet at the same time People don't..
© Ogden Nash
Soliloquy In Circles
Being a fatherIs quite a bother.You are as free as airWith time to spare,You're a fiscal rocketWith change in your pocket,And then one mornA child is..
© Ogden Nash
The Perfect Husband
He tells you when you've got ontoo much lipstickAnd helps you with your girdlewhen your hips stick.
© Ogden Nash
Portrait Of The Artist As A Prematurely Old Man
It is common knowledge to every schoolboy and even every Bachelor of Arts,That all sin is divided into two parts.One kind of sin is called a sin of..
© Ogden Nash
No, You Be A Lone Eagle
I find it very hard to be fair-mindedAbout people who go around being air-minded.I just can't see any funIn soaring up up up into the sunWhen the..
© Ogden Nash
Lines To Be Embroidered On A Bib
ORThe Child Is Father Of The Man, But Not For Quite A WhileSo Thomas EdisonNever drank his medicine;So Blackstone and HoyleRefused cod-liver oil;So..
© Ogden Nash
The Ant
The ant has made herself illustriousBy constant industry industrious.So what? Would you be calm and placidIf you were full of formic acid?
© Ogden Nash
The Firefly
The firefly's flameIs something for which science has no nameI can think of nothing eerierThan flying around with an unidentified glow on aperson's..
© Ogden Nash
The Centipede
I objurgate the centipede,A bug we do not really need.At sleepy-time he beats a pathStraight to the bedroom or the bath.You always wallop where he's..
© Ogden Nash
The Praying Mantis
From whence arrived the praying mantis?From outer space, or lost Atlantis?glimpse the grin, green metal mugat masks the pseudo-saintly..
© Ogden Nash
The Shrimp
A shrimp who sought his lady shrimpCould catch no glimpseNot even a glimp.At times, translucenceIs rather a nuisance.
© Ogden Nash
Will Consider Situation
There here are words of radical advice for a young man looking for a job;Young man, be a snob.Yes, if you are in search of arguments against starting..
© Ogden Nash
Introspective Reflection
I would live all my life in nonchalance and insoucianceWere it not for making a living, which is rather a nouciance.
© Ogden Nash
The Hunter
The hunter crouches in his blind'Neath camouflage of every kindAnd conjures up a quacking noiseTo lend allure to his decoysThis grown-up man, with..
© Ogden Nash
The Middle
When I remember bygone daysI think how evening follows morn;So many I loved were not yet dead,So many I love were not yet born.
© Ogden Nash
The Sniffle
In spite of her sniffleIsabel's chiffle.Some girls with a sniffleWould be weepy and tiffle;They would look awful,Like a rained-on waffle,But Isabel's..
© Ogden Nash
Lather As You Go
Beneath this slabJohn Brown is stowed.He watched the adsAnd not the road.
© Ogden Nash
Old Dr. Valentine To His Son
Your hopeless patients will live,Your healthy patients will die.I have only this word to give:Wonder, and find out why
© Ogden Nash