SOURCE: “Moral Incongruity and Humor: The ‘Good Bad’ Poetry of Ogden Nash,” in Studies in American Humor, Vol. 7, 1989, pp. 94-103.

In the following essay, Crandell examines Nash's use of the “poet-fool” persona in his humorous verse.

For some readers, the term “humorous poetry” is an oxymoron. “Poetry” denotes something serious, while “humorous,” by definition, means just the opposite. Equating “serious” with “good” and “humorous” with “bad,” the same individuals use “humorous” in a pejorative sense to distinguish writing that has some of the formal characteristics of poetry, rhyme and meter for example, but which lacks the seriousness of lyric, narrative or dramatic verse. Likewise, the terms vers de société and “light verse” have sometimes been used synonymously with “humorous poetry” to denote a type of writing lacking both seriousness and significant aesthetic value.

This line of argument has even been carried to the point of dissociating humor...