Ogden Nash – Susan Joy Clark

I’ve had a few opportunities to photograph ducks in the park from different trips there. I found these two floating on a raft together to be rather endearing. (It’s hard to tell, but I think the raft may actually be a platform that is anchored there underwater.) I keep noticing mallards together in male/female pairs, and it makes me think of Bambi and all of the animals getting “twitterpated” in springtime.

I thought I would combine photos with a couple of fun duck poems (not my own this time) of which I was reminded recently.

The Duck

Behold the duck.

It does not cluck.

A cluck it lacks.

It quacks.

It is specially fond

Of a puddle or pond.

When it sups,

It bottoms ups.

— by Ogden Nash

Another duck couple. Although seen on another day, perhaps it’s the same one?
Photo by Susan Joy Clark

I don’t have any “bottoms up” photos, but here is another duck poem with a similar theme, this time by Kenneth Grahame.

Ducks’ Ditty

All along the backwater,

Through the rushes tall,

Ducks are a-dabbling,

Up tails all!

Ducks’ tails, drakes’ tails,

Yellow feet a-quiver,

Yellow bills all out of sight,

Busy in the river!

Slushy green undergrowth

Where the roach swim —

Here we keep our larder,

Cool and full and dim.

Everyone for what he likes!

We like to be

Heads down, tails up,

Dabbling free!

High in the blue above

Swifts whirl and call —

We are down a-dabbling

Up tails all!

— by Kenneth Grahame

So, I don’t have any “bottoms up” photos of ducks, but I do have this photo of some baby ducklings.

(Light Verse — More Poetry with Movie Quotes)

There was once a circus elephant,

Who, although it wasn’t relevant

To his role in circus artistry,

Had a penchant, quite, for poetry,

But then, all his fellow pachyderms

Thought his hobby was a wacky yearn,

For from Mumbai unto Nairobi,

There was ne’er a poet wannabe,

Of elephant kind, in any case.

(That silliness just for human race.)

But he could not cessate his rhyming,

Nor stop his sense of comic timing,

So when one bellowed in frustration,

In his pachyderm protestation,

“Young sir! No more rhymes now! I mean it!”

‘Quipped, “Anybody want a peanut?”

Okay, I think I quite lost my brain with this one, but it was fun. I’m not sure if this is inspired by Ogden Nash or W.S. Gilbert, but it is, evidently, some silliness out of my own brain. dVerse recently had a challenge for poetry that included famous movie quotes. This line, “No more rhymes now! I mean it!” which was followed by “Anybody want a peanut?” from The Princess Bride immediately jumped into my brain, but then I realized, to follow the rules, we had to pick one of several quotes that were selected in advance. So, I did a poetic tribute to Back to the Future, but I thought I’d go back and see what I could do with this one. It’s kind of an interesting quote to work with, because it’s a bit of poetry itself, but I think I worked it into an entirely different context than the movie.

And for some baby elephant cuteness …

Tag: Ogden Nash

Two Duck Poems with Duck Photography

The Duck

Ducks’ Ditty

The Rhyming Elephant

(Light Verse — More Poetry with Movie Quotes)