Poems

Poems List

Explore poems from our collection

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 up up i…

264
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 out why

351
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

My Dream

My Dream
This is my dream,
It is my own dream,
I dreamt it.
I dreamt that my hair was kempt.
Then I dreamt that my true love unkempt it.

313
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

Look What You Did, Christopher!

Look What You Did, Christopher!
In fourteen hundred and ninety-two,
Someone sailed the ocean blue.
Somebody borrowed the fare in Spain
For a business tri…

309
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

Lines To Be Embroidered On A Bib

Lines To Be Embroidered On A Bib
OR
The Child Is Father Of The Man, But Not For Quite A While
So Thomas Edison
Never drank his medicine;
So Blackst…

241
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

Lines Indited With All The Depravity Of Poverty

Lines Indited With All The Depravity Of Poverty
One way to be very happy is to be very rich
For then you can buy orchids by the quire and bacon by the flitch.

288
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

Introspective Reflection

Introspective Reflection
I would live all my life in nonchalance and insouciance
Were it not for making a living, which is rather a nouciance.

356
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

Kipling's Vermont

Kipling's Vermont
The summer like a rajah dies,
And every widowed tree
Kindles for Congregationalist eyes
An alien suttee.

234
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

Grandpa Is Ashamed

Grandpa Is Ashamed
A child need not be very clever
To learn that "Later, dear" means "Never."

220
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

I Do, I Will, I Have

I Do, I Will, I Have
How wise I am to have instructed the butler
to instruct the first footman to instruct the second
footman to instruct the doorman to order …

240
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

Good-By Now or Pardon My Gauntlet

Good-By Now or Pardon My Gauntlet
Bring down the moon for genteel Janet;
She's too refined for this gross planet.
She wears garments and you wear clothes,

265
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

Family Court

Family Court
One would be in less danger
From the wiles of a stranger
If one's own kin and kith
Were more fun to be with.

373
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

Come On In, The Senility Is Fine

Come On In, The Senility Is Fine
People live forever in Jacksonville and St. Petersburg and Tampa,
But you don't have to live forever to become a grampa.
The e…

264
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

Crossing The Border

Crossing The Border
Senescence begins
And middle age ends
The day your descendents
Outnumber your friends.

236
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

Children's Party

Children's Party
May I join you in the doghouse, Rover?
I wish to retire till the party's over.
Since three o'clock I've done my best
To entertain each t…

306
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

Biological Reflection

Biological Reflection
A girl whose cheeks are covered with paint
Has an advantage with me over one whose ain't.

210
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

Always Marry An April Girl

Always Marry An April Girl
Praise the spells and bless the charms,
I found April in my arms.
April golden, April cloudy,
Gracious, cruel, tender, rowdy; …

313
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

A Word to Husbands

A Word to Husbands
To keep your marriage brimming
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you’re wrong, admit it;
Whenever you’re right, shut up.

196
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

A Lady Who Thinks She Is Thirty

A Lady Who Thinks She Is Thirty
Unwillingly Miranda wakes,
Feels the sun with terror,
One unwilling step she takes,
Shuddering to the mirror.
Miran…

268
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

A Caution To Everybody

A Caution To Everybody
Consider the auk;
Becoming extinct because he forgot how to fly, and could only walk.
Consider man, who may well become extinct
Be…

343
Novalis
Novalis

Hymns to the Night :

Hymns to the Night :
Now I know when will come the last morning -- when the Light no more scares away
Night and Love -- when sleep shall be without waking, and but …

347
Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash

À Bas Ben Adhem

À Bas Ben Adhem
My fellow man I do not care for.
I often ask me, What's he there for?
The only answer I can find
Is, Reproduction of his kind.
If I…

291
Novalis
Novalis

Hymns to the Night :

Hymns to the Night :
Must the morning always return? Will the despotism of the earthly never cease? Unholy
activity consumes the angel-visit of the Night. Will the …

342
Novalis
Novalis

Hymns to the Night :

Hymns to the Night :
Before all the wondrous shows of the widespread space around him, what living,
sentient thing loves not the all-joyous light -- with its colors…

428