American poet Ogden Nash was born on August 19, 1902, and became popular for his light humor, simple verse, and knack for unconventional rhymes.  His most widely-quoted poem, “Reflections on Ice-Breaking,” contains only four lines and eleven syllables, but gets the point across: “Candy / Is dandy / But liquor / Is quicker.” Other poems, like his animal verses, like to make use of fabricated words to accommodate for his unique rhymes: “Who wants my jellyfish? / I’m not sellyfish!” Below, a sampling of his poems.



“Biological Reflection”
A girl whose cheeks are covered with paint
Has an advantage with me over one whose aint.

“Reflection On Babies”
A bit of talcum
Is always walcum.

“Oh To Be Odd!”
Hypochondriacs
Spend the winter at the bottom of Florida and the summer on top of the Adirondriacs.
You go to Paris and live on champagne wine and cognac
If you’re disomognac.
If you’re a manic-depressive
You don’t go anywhere where you won’t be cheered up, and people say “There, there!” if your bills are excessive.
But you stick around and work day and nigh and night and day with your nose to the sawmill.
If you’re nawmill.

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

“Lather As You Go”
Beneath this slab
John Brown is stowed.
He watched the ads
And not the road.

“The Sniffle”
In spite of her sniffle
Isabel’s chiffle.
Some girls with a sniffle
Would be weepy and tiffle:
They would look awful,
Like a rained-on waffle,
But Isabel’s chiffle
In spite of her sniffle.
Her nose is more red
With a cold in her head,
But then, to be sure,
Her eyes are bluer.
Some girls with a snuffle,
Their tempers are uffle.
But when Isabel’s snivelly
She’s snivelly civilly,
And when she’s snuffly
She’s perfectly luffly.

*Photo courtesy Special.