NASH, Ogden

Surprise. Nash's prosaic subjects and corny sentiments notwithstanding, he was an inventive poet, beginning with campy couplets uniquely identifiable as his: I think it very nice for ladies to be lithe and lis-some,/ But not so much so that you cut yourself if you happen to embrace and kissome. Writing out of the traditions of conventional verse, Nash played not only with formal fulfillment and violation but with symmetry and asymmetry, as in couplets such as: I know another man...