Poems

Poems List

Explore poems from our collection

Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

The Jellyfish

The Jellyfish
Who wants my jellyfish?
I'm not sellyfish!

283
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

The Hippopotamus

The Hippopotamus
Behold the hippopotamus!
We laugh at how he looks to us,
And yet in moments dank and grim,
I wonder how we look to him.

249
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

The Firefly

The Firefly
The firefly's flame
Is something for which science has no name
I can think of nothing eerier
Than flying around with an unidentified …

205
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

The Germ

The Germ
A mighty creature is the germ,
Though smaller than the pachyderm.
His customary dwelling place
Is deep within the human race.
Hi…

286
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

The Duck

The Duck
Behold the duck.
It does not cluck.
A cluck it lacks.
It quacks.
It is specially fond
Of a puddle or pond.
When …

214
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

The Cuckoo

The Cuckoo
Cuckoos lead Bohemian lives,
They fail as husbands and as wives,
Therefore they cynically disparage
Everybody else's marriage.

219
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

The Centipede

The Centipede
I objurgate the centipede,
A bug we do not really need.
At sleepy-time he beats a path
Straight to the bedroom or the bath.

259
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

The Clean Plater

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 …

224
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

The Cantaloupe

The Cantaloupe
One cantaloupe is ripe and lush,
Another's green, another's mush.
I'd buy a lot more cantaloupe
If I possessed a fluoroscope.

200
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

The Boy Who Laughed At Santa Claus

The Boy Who Laughed At Santa Claus
In Baltimore there lived a boy.
He wasn't anybody's joy.
Although his name was Jabez Dawes,
His character was …

266
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

The Ant

The Ant
The ant has made herself illustrious
By constant industry industrious.
So what? Would you be calm and placid
If you were full of formic a…

317
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

Tableau at Twilight

Tableau at Twilight
I sit in the dusk. I am all alone.
Enter a child and an ice-cream cone.
A parent is easily beguiled
By sight of this conifero…

223
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

Soliloquy in Circles

Soliloquy in Circles
Being a father
Is quite a bother.
You are as free as air
With time to spare,
You're a fiscal rocket
With cha…

272
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

Song To Be Sung by the Father of Infant Female Children

Song To Be Sung by the Father of Infant Female Children
My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky;
Contrariwise, my blood runs cold
Wh…

210
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

Reflections On Ice-Breaking

Reflections On Ice-Breaking
Candy
Is Dandy
But liquor
Is quicker.

276
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

Samson Agonistes

Samson Agonistes
I test my bath before I sit,
And I'm always moved to wonderment
That what chills the finger not a bit
Is so frigid upon the fund…

196
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

Reflection On Babies

Reflection On Babies
A bit of talcum
Is always walcum.

252
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

Reflection On The Fallibility Of Nemesis

Reflection On The Fallibility Of Nemesis
He who is ridden by a conscience
Worries about a lot of nonscience;
He without benefit of scruples
His f…

237
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

Pretty Halcyon Days

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 t…

209
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

Portrait of the Artist as a Prematurely Old Man

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…

227
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

Peekabo, I Almost See You

Peekabo, I Almost See You
Middle-aged life is merry, and I love to
lead it,
But there comes a day when your eyes
are all right but your arm isn't…

254
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

One From One Leaves Two

One From One Leaves Two
Higgledy piggledy, my black hen,
She lays eggs for gentlemen.
Gentlemen come every day
To count what my black hen doth la…

262
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

No, You Be A Lone Eagle

No, You Be A Lone Eagle
I find it very hard to be fair-minded
About people who go around being air-minded.
I just can't see any fun
In soaring up…

261
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

Old Dr. Valentine To His Son

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 ou…

346