Ogden Nash (1902-1971) American humorous light verse poet who wrote well over 500 poems, one of the best- known and liked U.S. poets.  He was born in Rye, NY, but his family moved frequently because of his father’s import-export business. He spent a year at Harvard University in 1920, but dropped out, then taught briefly, tried to sell bonds in New York City, and then became a writer of streetcar card ads. After that, he worked as an editor at Doubleday Publishing. Nash submitted some of his short rhymes to The New Yorker, and editor Harold Ross asked him for more, “They are about the most original stuff we have had lately.” Nash spent three months in 1931 in working on the editorial staff for The New Yorker, and married Frances Leonard. They moved to Baltimore in 1934, were they lived for the rest of their lives. Nash wrote in a parody of poet Richard Lovelace, “I could have loved New York had I not loved Balti-more.” He wrote the lyrics for the Broadway shows One Touch of Venus, and Two’s Company. He also collaborated with S.J.Perelman and Kurt Weill. Nash died in Baltimore at age 68 in May, 1971, of complications from Crohn’s disease aggravated by a lactobacillus infection transmitted by improperly prepared coleslaw.

To read Nash’s “Always Marry an April Girl” click:

Always Marry an April Girl

by Ogden Nash

Praise the spells and bless the charms,
I found April in my arms.
April golden, April cloudy,
Gracious, cruel, tender, rowdy;
April soft in flowered languor,
April cold with sudden anger,
Ever changing, ever true —
I love April, I love you.

“Always Marry an April Girl” from The Best of Ogden Nash, © 2007 by Linell Nash Smith and the estate of Isabel Nash Eberstadt –  Ivan R. Dee, publisher