The Charmed Life: Ogden Nash

Showing posts with label Ogden Nash. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Awake, Ye Waking Hibernators!

Spring Song

by Ogden Nash

Listen, buds, it’s March twenty-first;

Don’t you know enough to burst?

Come on, birds, unlock your throats!

Come on, gardeners, shed your coats!

Come on zephyrs, come on flowers,

Come on grass, and violet showers!

And come on, lambs, in frisking flocks!

Salute the vernal equinox!

Twang the cheerful lute and zither!

Spring is absolutely hither!

Yester eve was dark despair,

With winter, winter, everywhere;

Today, upon the other hand,

“Tis spring throughout this happy land.

Oh, such is Nature’s chiaroscuro,

According to the Weather Bureau.

Then giddy-ap, Napoleon! Giddy-ap, Gideon!

The sun has crossed the right meridian!

What though the blasts of Winter sting?

Officially, at least, it’s Spring,

And be it far from our desire

To make the Weather Man a liar!

So, blossom, ye parks, with cozy benches,

Occupied by blushing wenches!

Pipe, ye frogs, while swains are sighing,

And furnaces unwept are dying!

Crow, ye cocks, a little bit louder!

Mount, ye sales of paint and powder!

Croon, ye crooner, yet more croonishly!

Shine, ye moon, a lot more moonishly!

And oh ye brooklets, burst your channels!

And oh ye camphor, greet ye flannels!

And bloom, ye clothesline, bloom with wash,

Where erstwhile trudged the grim galosh!

Ye transit lines, abet our follies

By turning loose your open trolleys!

And ye, ye waking hibernators,

Drain anti-freeze from your radiators!

While ye, ye otherwise useless dove,

Remember, please, to rhyme with love.

Then giddy-ap, Napoleon! Giddy-ap, Gideon!

The sun has crossed the right meridian!

What though the blasts of Winter sting?

Officially, at least, it’s Spring!

Spring BrightadShinyThings on etsy and eBay

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Puff the Magic Dragon's Legendary Ancestor

THE TALE OF CUSTARD THE DRAGON

By Ogden Nash (1936)

Copyright Linell Nash Smith and Isabel Nash Eberstadt

Belinda lived in a little white house,
With a little black kitten and a little gray mouse,
And a little yellow dog and a little red wagon,
And a realio, trulio, little pet dragon.

Now the name of the little black kitten was Ink,
And the little gray mouse, she called her Blink,
And the little yellow dog was sharp as Mustard,
But the dragon was a coward, and she called him Custard.

Custard the dragon had big sharp teeth,
And spikes on top of him and scales underneath,
Mouth like a fireplace, chimney for a nose,
And realio, trulio, daggers on his toes.

Belinda was as brave as a barrel full of bears,
And Ink and Blink chased lions down the stairs,
Mustard was as brave as a tiger in a rage,
But Custard cried for a nice safe cage.

Belinda tickled him, she tickled him unmerciful,
Ink, Blink and Mustard, they rudely called him Percival,
They all sat laughing in the little red wagon
At the realio, trulio, cowardly dragon.

Belinda giggled till she shook the house,
And Blink said Week!, which is giggling for a mouse,
Ink and Mustard rudely asked his age,
When Custard cried for a nice safe cage.

Suddenly, suddenly they heard a nasty sound,
And Mustard growled, and they all looked around.
Meowch! cried Ink, and Ooh! cried Belinda,
For there was a pirate, climbing in the winda.

Pistol in his left hand, pistol in his right,
And he held in his teeth a cutlass bright,
His beard was black, one leg was wood;
It was clear that the pirate meant no good.

Belinda paled, and she cried, Help! Help!
But Mustard fled with a terrified yelp,
Ink trickled down to the bottom of the household,
And little mouse Blink strategically mouseholed.

But up jumped Custard, snorting like an engine,
Clashed his tail like irons in a dungeon,
With a clatter and a clank and a jangling squirm
He went at the pirate like a robin at a worm.

The pirate gaped at Belinda's dragon,
And gulped some grog from his pocket flagon,
He fired two bullets but they didn't hit,
And Custard gobbled him, every bit.

Belinda embraced him, Mustard licked him,
No one mourned for his pirate victim
Ink and Blink in glee did gyrate
Around the dragon that ate the pyrate.

Belinda still lives in her little white house,
With her little black kitten and her little gray mouse,
And her little yellow dog and her little red wagon,
And her realio, trulio, little pet dragon.

Belinda is as brave as a barrel full of bears,
And Ink and Blink chase lions down the stairs,
Mustard is as brave as a tiger in a rage,
But Custard keeps crying for a nice safe cage.