Monday, 29 March 2010

Ogden Nash on Uncle Ed

As a child, I wrote nonsense poetry: the writers I most wanted to be then were Ogden Nash, Edward Lear and Hillaire Belloc. Here is one of my favourite poems from that happy period.

A Caution to Hillbilly Singers, Harpists, Harpoonists, Channel-Swimmers, and People First in Line for World Series Tickets

Fame was a claim of Uncle Ed’s,


Simply because he had three heads,


Which, if he’d only had a third of,


I think he would never have been heard of.

(Hee!)

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do you know Mervyn Peake's?
E.g.:

O here it is! and there it is!
And no-one knows whose share it is!
Nor dares to stake a claim -
But we have seen it in the air,
A fairy, like a William pear -
With but itself to blame.

A thug it is! and smug it is;
And like a floating pug it is,
Above the orchard trees.
It has no right- no right at all
To soar above the orchard wall
With chilblains on its knees.


[Can't type the drawing!]