A Tale Of The Thirteenth Floor by Ogden Nash

When I was eight years old, I spent a year in Birmingham in the UK, attending Hallfield School in the days before it went coed. My class held a poetry recitation contest. I've already told you how I fell in love with Edward Lear's poem "The Jumblies" during this time. Another of my colleages recited the poem by T. S. Eliot about the feline criminal mastermind Macavity. I remember enjoying the rhyming of Macavity and depravity at the time. But there was a classmate who took joy in bugging me about America, so I was bound and determined to find a poem to recite by an American poet. The poet I located was Ogden Nash. The poem was "The Adventures of Isabel," which was at least as silly as "The Jumblies." I didn't do a very good job of reciting, but I fell in love with Ogden Nash's poetry. I discovered many years later that Isabel was one of Nash's two daughters.

As I reflect on Ogden Nash, he used the same raw comedic material as Will Rogers, but produced poetic observations instead of stand-up comedy.

The poem mentions Walpurgis night, which is actually at the end of April, and I originally recorded it at the time Walpurgis night is usually celebrated in Europe. But still, it seemed like a nice thing to contribute to this year's Halloween proceedings, and it is my humble attempt to atone for my lousy reciting in 1966. I've added some early Ornette Coleman as the music to this terrible tale. If you like it, maybe I'll do some more.

I give you "A Tale Of The Thirteenth Floor" by Ogden Nash. Click on the player to hear it.