May 19, 1971

Ogden Nash (August 19, 1902 to May 19, 1971) has a firm place in the literary firmament, because of his humorous verses. Some of his writing is just silly.  As these lines from  the poem "Cat Naps Are Too Good for Cats":

I will not sell my daily swoon
For all the rubies in Rangoon.

Light verse need not be just silly. Nash, who worked as an editor at Doubleday, was famous because of the intelligence behind many of his phrasings, such as--

I think that I shall never see 

a billboard lovely as a tree,

Indeed, unless the billboards fall  

I'll never see a tree at all.

And of course, the need for

Laughter is a universal aspect of human society. 

Its needed mead against human ferocity.