In my childhood, I was a consistent fan of the poet, Ogden Nash. I persistently read all that I could find of his published works and our family tried never to miss his appearances on television.
Voluntarily memorizing Ogden Nash was more fun than doing the same for the poems that teachers assigned. In times of challenge or stress, his simple rhyming schemes relieved the tension and brought forth smiles and laughs, the latter sometimes of such magnitude as to cause tears.
As with many folks in the Northern Neck, Ogden was enamored with the city of Baltimore. Although born in New York in 1902, he was a Baltimorean at heart and a committed Baltimore Colts fan. He did not live to see his team move away, which would have caused him great angst, I am sure. He matriculated at Harvard University, but left after only one year, thereafter he was on his own, both intellectually and professionally. Initially, he tried selling bonds, but said he only succeeded in selling one to his godmother. Business clearly was not his bent.
At one point, he briefly moved to New York, but soon returned to Baltimore, writing, “I could have loved New York had I not loved Balti-more.” In 1931 he married Frances Leonard, a Baltimore native, and subsequently moved his family to her family home in Guilford in the city. There, he lived until his death in 1972.
His family ancestry included collaterally General Francis Nash, of Revolutionary War fame, for whom the city of Nashville, Tennessee, is named, and directly Governor Abner Nash of North Carolina. For a short while, his parents moved their family to Savannah, Georgia, where they rented the carriage house of the mansion of Juliette Gordon Low, the foundress of the Girl Scouts of the United States. Throughout his life, Ogden enjoyed the finer things the world had to offer, which background he transposed to the written word.
Ogden became a popular figure with the dawn of television in the 1950s, as he had been in radio previously. He often was a guest panelist on shows, quipping his way back and forth with other celebrities, but always getting the last word. He tended to exhibit a somewhat staid personality. Seeing his exchanges with the likes of Dagmar, the West Virginia actress who was anything but staid, was a real treat. His facial expressions said as much as his words.
He also wrote lyrics for Broadway shows, most notably “One Touch of Venus” in 1942 and “Two’s Company” in 1952. The former included the hit single, “Speak Low” played by Guy Lombardo and his band. The song became one of the musical icons of the Second World War.
As one who enjoys writing about animals, I share with Ogden the fun of describing their escapades. Of all his works with which I am acquainted, “Zoo” is my favorite, consisting of an anthology of poems about the residents of a menagerie. He makes them come alive poetically, and I might add, humorously. He truly understood the humanity of the animal kingdom.
The Great Man might not be pleased, but of late I have been emulating Ogden with a few ditties of my own. Here is a sample.
“Ode to Ogden”
The poet Ogden’s surname was Nash.
He wrote odes with a flair for panache.
One might think he wrote them in a dash,
Or that his motivation was cash,
But that would be incredibly rash.
Often his words brought tears to the lash,
And reading them always was a bash.
None would say his poetry was trash.
For it a king would give him a sash.
Into the stuffy past, he cut a gash.
Reading his poems, awe comes in a flash.
