The purpose of this research is to examine selected poems from three collections by Ogden Nash. The plan of the research will be to set forth the context in which each poetry collection emerged, and then to discuss, by means of comparison and contrast, how the poems reflect both Nash's humor and his strategy of social commentary.
In three collections of poetry, I'm a Stranger Here Myself, Versus, and You Can't Get There From Here, Nash uses light verse to accomplish the work of insight into certain realities of contemporary human experience. Although Nash's reputation is as an "indefatigable American rhymester" (Atwood 81), it would be misleading to confine his range of concern to diverting humor. For as a matter of fact, the evidence of the poems is that they are meant to oblige the reader to focus on realities that are not always pleasant, but that need not become reasons for despair. In this regard, Hawkins refers to Nash's "funny serious poems," which "coexist[] and interact[] with that angst [of the modern era] . . . recognizing as Mark Twain once said, 'The secret source of humor itself is not joy but sorrow'" (Hawkins 15). Consider for example that I'm a Stranger Here Myself was anthologized in 1938, the between-the-wars period in which so much that was about to go radically wrong with the world was growing in influence. One poem, "Merry Christmas, Nearly Everybody," appears to have been written in 1936: Japan's expansionist imperialism was becoming more ominous; the Spanish Civil War was in full gear; FDR's attempt to pack the Supreme Court with New Deal-friendly justices had fostered acrimony with Congress; the highly theatrical 1936 Olympic Games had been hosted by the highly theatrical Hitler. It is in the wider political and cultural context that "Merry Christmas" achieves resonance. The poet recalls Yuletide as a season when "everybody loved everybody" and "nobody shoved nobody," ultimately getting to his "thesis, / Whi...