ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

Happy Birthday - belated - Ogden! (Ogden Nash - born 19th August, 1902.)

À Bas Ben Adhem (Truncated)
Ogden Nash

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.

To make the matter more succint:
Suppose my fellow man extinct.
Why, who would not approve the plan
Save possibly my fellow man?
Yet with a politician's voice
He names himself as Nature's choice.

The finest of the human race
Are bad in figure, worse in face.
Yet just because they have two legs
And eat, instead of laying eggs
He hails himself with drum and fife
And bullies lower forms of life

Not that I think much depends
On how we treat our feathered friends,
It's simply that I'm sure I can
Get on without my fellow man.

What a pity that a man of his talent looks like a dried up prune in spirit, in the poem posted here.

Nashville, Tennessee was named after Francis Nash, who I believe was a forebear of Ogden.

I take it you've met his 'spirit' Nev ...

I like the poetry of Ogden Nash. Very much. Ogdenville would be a nice name for a town - or perhaps a suburb of Nashville.

I have an anthology of many of his works. Yes, I've met his spirit all right.
That one you've quoted there Manfred sounds like one of the meanest things in poetry.


Some of Ogden Nash's poetry is brilliant Stephen, I like it as well. When I found his seeming ' dark side" I was bitterly disappointed.

Tell me more, Neville?

I wouldn't judge him too harshly on that poem, Neville. Lots of writers have negative things to say about their fellow man. Mark Twain is a classic case. I read another example the other day, but can't recall who it was. I think you need to take all of this with a grain of salt - a big one.

Charles Bukowski, that's who it was. He is so negative about humanity at times that it is actually quite funny.

J. D. Salinger doesn't seem to like people much, either, but that doesn't stop "Catcher in the Rye" from being a great book.