THE humorous American poet Ogden Nash spent most of his life in Baltimore. After a brief move to New York, he wrote: “I could have loved New York, had I not loved Baltimore.” Focussing in his poems on the ordinary, he became known as the poet of the commonplace. One admirer said of him: “His achievement lies in saying nontrivial things about trivia and saying them perfectly.” Everyday happenings, getting up in the morning, commuting, arguments, the small scale crises that make up ninety percent of daily living, these were the themes of his poems, most of which were a lovely blend of seriousness and humour, About husbands he wrote:
To keep your marriage brimming,