Ogden Nash's Zoo

by Ogden Nash, Étienne Delessert (Illustrator)

Rampant wit and humor abound in this new collection of Nash's best-loved verses about animals, delightfully illustrated by award-winning illustrator Etienne Delessert. 65 black-and-white illustrations.

Genres: Poetry, Humor, Animals, Nonfiction, Childrens, Classics

79 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Frederic Ogden Nash was an American poet well known for his light verse. At the time of his death in 1971, the New York Times said his "droll verse with its unconventional rhymes made him the country's best-known producer of humorous poetry".

Reviews

[Michael P.]

Silly rhymes about his times
that take up too many lines,
saying nothing that's profound
his rhythms have a common sound.
I took my books by Ogden Nash
and put them deep into the trash.

[J.D. Estrada]

A quick, fun, and brilliant poetry collection that should not be spoiled by a simple human quoting a zoo. I'd never read Ogden Nash and am very happy I picked this up at the library. All poems are one pager and never jam packing the page. They're quirky, silly, and sometimes you need a bit of that in your life.

Smile inducing, cheeky, and not altogether serious. Think Roald Dahl in poetry and you get a good idea of the vibes it evokes.

[Erin Cataldi]

My family seems to love Ogden Nash but I am just so-so about him. He's like a Dr. Seuss poet for adults. His poetry is irreverent and "funny" and geared towards adult humor. This collection features a bunch of ridiculous animal poetry. Some of it rhymes, some of it doesn't, much of it is nonsensical. The best part of this little collection is the cute illustrations accompanying each poem. Maybe I don't understand or appreciate Ogden Nash at this stage in my life but I will try revisiting him another time.

[J]

Ogden Nash is one of those poets whose name is more well-known than most of his works, which appears in almost any collective poetry anthology of anything considered older than modern poetry. And since I don't mind dabbling in older poetry I chose to give this quick read a try.

The book is divided into sections of like-grouped animals so the cat section has pets, the aquarium most water life including sea mammals, the lamb for livestock, etc. After that there is no alphabetical order nor does the poem providing its name to the section gets first billing.

Ogden Nash's Zoo is a collection of his animal poems collected in one book. One or two may stand out for wit but they really aren't that clever or even sillier than Edward Lear.

Instead Nash relies on using the majority of these poems to indicate his contempt of these lower life forms often, to use them to make snide remarks on the pop culture of his time or in a few cases to just really say he doesn't know anything.

He uses rhythm and rhyme throughout although some sentiments are a bit longer than the ones following that the verse becomes clunky. At the same time he isn't averse to change words or make his own to reach an ends to the mean.

The illustrations were also not really that noteworthy as can be seen on the front with the awkwardly colored rhinoceros. The illustrator's animals are a smidge over cartoonish with awkward proportions such as the cow with the really small head. Other issues I found was also that she used a dolphin for a porpoise.

All in all if you are into light and quick reads this one many help to pass the time or even provide you with some brief poems if you are required to remember any for a class. Otherwise it is a take-it-or-leave-it type of book.

[Jeimy]

Nash plays around with language to create amusing rhymes in these poems about animals.

[Natalie]

This is a delightful collection of verses about animals. We enjoyed it (along with the Click, Clack, Moo books) as we read Animal Farm for our Family Book Club.

Favorite verses:

The Cow
The cow is of the bovine ilk;
One end is moo, the other, milk.

The Panther
The panther is like a leopard,
Except it hasn't been peppered.
Should you behold a panther crouch,
Prepare to say Ouch.
Better yet, if called by a panther,
Don't anther.

The Dog
The truth I do not stretch or shove
When I state the dog is full of love.
I've also proved, by actual test,
A wet dog is the lovingest.

[Jana]

I picked up this book because it had "Zoo" in the title and that was the theme for the month's book club meeting. My 7 yo son got a big thrill out of the poems about animals. Lots of big words for him, so it gave me lots of opportunity to expand his vocabulary. The ideas expressed in the poetry also provided lots of conversation. I can see myself picking this up avery year or two and going through it again. That's pretty high praise from me.

[Bernie4444]

Pondering the zoo and Ogden Nash too

(Frederic) Ogden Nash was born in Rye, New York, on August 19, 1902.
Died in Baltimore, Maryland, on May 19, 1971

I unique advantage Ogden has was not needing to have a riming dictionary. If the appropriate word did not appear, he would appropriate a word.

This book is a great collection of the best of Ogden as he observed Zoo's life.
Let us not overlook the addition of Illustrations by the famous Swiss artist, sculptor, illustrator, and animator, Etienne Delessert.

[Jerome]

Ogden Nash. I want to like him more than I do. I like playfulness and cleverness and humor. I just little of it here.
And as a nature lover, his poems are often snide and insulting to the animals who are the subject of his insults.
I know, they’re not supposed to be taken seriously. I just didn’t find them funny or even amusing.

[Kay]

I liked this book of Ogden Nash's comic verse beautifully illustrated by Etienne Delessert, but thought that some of the verses were a bit ho-hum. However, others really appealed to me, particularly "The Turkey" and "The Grinch".

[E]

I love Ogden’s nonsense. His advice on page 71, if called by a Panther, Don’t anther. 😂

A book of rhymes on animals. Some rhyme some don’t. Some folk might not like that.
Maybe it’s part of the joke?

[Charlotte Bernhard]

Always been a fan of the famous “candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker” and happy to have a couple more fun and animal themed lines to add to the list. Especially love when Nash stretches words to fit a rhyme, reminds me of Buffy’s iconic “well, you were myth-taken”

[Child960801]

This was a short little book full of Ogden Nash's poems about animals. Short and fun. I read it to the children.

[Janice]

Fun book of Nash's animal poetry.

[Nancy Chambers]

Short funny book. I laughed out loud

[Jackie]

This was wholesome

[Gabriel]

A barrel of laughs!

[Mike]

I...guess I just don’t get it.

[Cassandra]

Well that was an interesting waste of 15 mins (if that)

[Carina]

This book left quite an impression on me as a kid.

[Sean]

Goofy fun.

[Heather Brush]

Glad to have read it, but wasn't all that impressed.

[Eva B.]

Short and humorous if you like that sort of thing. (Which I do.)

[Maggie]

Absolutely ridiculous.

[Dyan]

Some of these were very cute. My favourite was 'The Phoenix', right at the very end.

[Jack Dale]

Funny little poems about various animals, and beautiful illustrations, too.

[Sadie]

I remember getting this book at Christmas when I was a kid and reading the poems over and over again. Silly goose! I still pull it out to read. I'm usually bored or irritated by poetry so this is the perfect thing for me.

There are some audio clips of him on UbuWeb here:

http://www.ubu.com/sound/nash.html

[Donna]

The monkey is
A child of whim;
Ethics mean nothing
Much to him;
His life is full
Of fun and zest;
He turns his critics
With a jest;
A tailor and
A friend or two
Could make him Mayor
Of the zoo.

Gotta love those monkeys!

This book was really funny and had great illustrations by Etienne Delessert.

[Mir]

I'd already read almost all the poems here -- I had a "collected works" as a kid, although that seems to have left out the more obviously dirty examples.

Wasn't impressed by Delessert's illustrations. They were boring, frankly, and don't seem to add anything except maybe for individuals who don't know what some of the animals are.

[Tim]

It is fun to read the Zoo aloud to the kids. Even if they do not understand all the references, they get enough of Nash's playfulness to enjoy it immensely. The illustrations are quite good as well.