Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash (1902–1971) was an American poet known for comic verse, memorable rhymes, and playful departures from conventional spelling.
Light verse: Poetry that treats its subjects in a playful, witty, or amusing manner. Nash’s work is a prominent example of light verse in American poetry.
Reflections on Ice-Breaking: Ogden Nash’s comic poem that begins, “Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker.” Its compact rhyme is among Nash’s best-known examples of comic misdirection.
The New Yorker: An American magazine founded in 1925, known for journalism, criticism, fiction, and cartoons. Nash published much of his verse in the magazine, helping establish his public readership.
The Adventures of Mark Twain: A 1944 film anthology featuring dramatizations of stories by Mark Twain. Nash contributed verse to this film, showing his writing beyond standalone poems.
American humor: A tradition of comedy shaped by the history, culture, and social life of the United States. Nash’s wordplay and everyday subjects place him within a broader national comic tradition.
Rhyme: The correspondence of sounds, especially at the ends of words or lines. Unexpected rhymes give Nash’s comic couplets their punch and memorability.
The Cow: Ogden Nash’s short comic poem about the appearance and behavior of a cow. Its deliberately awkward rhymes demonstrate Nash’s playful approach to poetic form.
Franklin P. Adams: An American newspaper columnist and humorist who helped popularize light verse in the early twentieth century. Adams’s column gave Nash an early opportunity to publish poetry.
The Family Reunion: A 1939 play by T. S. Eliot about a family gathering and its troubled heir. Nash wrote a comic parody of the play, applying his verse humor to contemporary theater.
Comic poetry: Poetry whose language, form, or subject is designed to produce humor. Nash became one of the most widely recognized American practitioners of comic poetry.