Love Poem for Frances

love, poetry, , ,

Ogden Nash wrote so many loving letters and poems to and about his wife Frances. Here is one typically playful poem on a favorite subject:

FOR FRANCES

Geniuses of countless nations
Have told their love for generations
Till all their memorable phrases
Are common as goldenrod or daisies.
Their girls have glimmered like the moon,
Or shimmered like a summer noon,
Stood like lily, fled like fawn,
Now like sunset, now like dawn,
Here the princess in the tower,
There the sweet forbidden flower.
Darling, when I think of you
Every aged phrase is new,
And there are moments when it seems
I’ve married one of Shakespeare’s dreams.

-Ogden Nash

Paintings About Love
Chez le Père Lathuille by Édouard Manet

12 thoughts on “Love Poem for Frances”

  5. What a mark of his love for his wife! I remember Nash well. I’m sure he used to be on some kind of game show when I was a child as I remember his face on our old black and white TV screen. I thought I had one of his books on my shelves but can’t spot it.

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      1. Dagmar, yes! I bet you’re too young to even know her! Of course and that distinctive voice of his. Thank you for proving my long term memory at least is still working!

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      2. Dewena, you would probably love the book Nash’s daughter Linell Nash Smith put together, of her father’s letters, Loving Letters from Ogden Nash: A Family Album. I have a copy, which is stuck through with a couple dozen post-it markers in preparation for a long-overdue blog post I would like to write about him. Such a dear man.

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  8. The sweet fragrance of Ogdens love for wife in this poem drifts like the smell of lovely spring flowers into my heart refreshing my spirit.
    Thank you Gretchen for sharing it.

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