Well, that answers my question about what happened to the original poem. It's a shame that it's lost - I'd kind of like to see it.
My opinion on Ogden Nash (whose work inspired the original poem) - one of the small handful of poetic geniuses of the 20th century - he's kind of like a light-verse Walt Whitman. Me - not a fan of Walt Whitman, yes a fan of Ogden Nash. I like imagining his poems being read in his New England accent - I have an LP record of Nash reading. Not surprised that Nash could have inspired such an excellent song.
Interesting - the only poetry my father ever shared with me was Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass and Ogden Nash's ditty about fireflies. I enjoyed the Whitman poems, but not enough to actually remember any, but I still look up Nash from time to time. When I worked in a rubber tree research center in Thailand, I translated his ant poem into Thai because rubber trees are always crawling with ants, and we used formic acid to cure the latex into solid rubber sheets. Amazing how Nash can come in handy.
The one Whitman poem I remember at all in detail is his atypical O Captain, My Captain, about the death of Abraham Lincoln. O heart heart heart, O the bleeding drops of red, where on the deck my captain lies, fallen cold and dead." Very trite, but "I celebrate myself and sing myself" didn't exactly grab me.
There are probably 2 or 3 dozen Nash poems I remember fondly. My favorite is The Private Dining Room. "Miss Rafferty wore taffeta. The taffeta was lavender." Works best if you're familiar with Nash's accent (if not, cross a Maine accent with a Kennedy accent and you're pretty close), but a wonderful piece that moves from sober to drunk and then suddenly sobers up at the very end.
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Date: 2009-09-18 02:29 pm (UTC)My opinion on Ogden Nash (whose work inspired the original poem) - one of the small handful of poetic geniuses of the 20th century - he's kind of like a light-verse Walt Whitman. Me - not a fan of Walt Whitman, yes a fan of Ogden Nash. I like imagining his poems being read in his New England accent - I have an LP record of Nash reading. Not surprised that Nash could have inspired such an excellent song.
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Date: 2009-09-18 05:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-18 06:31 pm (UTC)There are probably 2 or 3 dozen Nash poems I remember fondly. My favorite is The Private Dining Room. "Miss Rafferty wore taffeta. The taffeta was lavender." Works best if you're familiar with Nash's accent (if not, cross a Maine accent with a Kennedy accent and you're pretty close), but a wonderful piece that moves from sober to drunk and then suddenly sobers up at the very end.