Customer Reviews

Voice of the Poet: American Wits: Ogden Nash, Dorothy Parker, Phyllis McGinley

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In this new CD-update of the Voice of the Poet series, we get three poets instead of the normal one. Each of these poets could, of course, fill a whole CD. But the selections are balanced (especially since editors were confined to what happened to exist in the archives from which these readings were pulled). I venture to guess there will be at least one poem from each of them that you will find amusing.

I was more familiar with Parker and especially Nash, two legends of the now-dying art of light verse. This was my first experience of McGinley, a more serious writer, who won a Pulitzer Prize for her proto-feminist collection TIMES THREE. She's great too. For those unfamiliar with one or more of these poets the companion book contains capsule biographies by J.D. McClatchey.

For me, hearing the voices of Parker and Nash was a gas. Parker is so austere and while Nash is so wonderfully nasal. My favorite track on the disc is probably his cantankakerous reading of "Tune for an Ill-Tempered Clavichord."

The Voice of the Poet is a great series, at least the three CDs with which I am familiar. If you enjoy hearing poems, as well as reading them-- and especially if you enjoy witty, funny verse-- I heartily recommend AMERICAN WITS.

This is a great CD for your next road trip. I especially enjoy Dorothy Parker's poem "Men." Her scathing delivery is hilarious. Ogden Nash, with his deliberate and self-indulgent style, may strike a listener as tedious at first. But just listen, and the reason for his easy arrogance unfolds within your mind as his assonance and rhyme build through imagery and punchlines to a certain sublime truth about this life, whoever you are, wherever you are. I've listened to several of these poems over and over. Phyllis McGinley is more stark and political than Ogden and Dorothy, and her delivery far less nuanced. I'm not sure why she was included in this collection; it may have been polished off nicely with a better choice. I can't really blame her, though--who can follow Ogden Nash?