In honor of Ogden Nash's 108th birthaversary, here is the non-rhyming, yet very funny introduction to Parents Keep Out. Subtitled 'Elderly Poems for Youngerly Readers. A 49 year old Nash writes how delighted he is to discover that kids can relate to his poems - the ones written about the foibles of the adult world. Nash muses that perhaps the way to bridge the great inter-generational communication divide is for parents to laugh at themselves in front of their children.
FOREWORD
Since parents can't keep out of anything, I resignedly
address these words to them. Many parents will find that
they have read some of the verses in previous books of
mine. I shall not apologize. Anybody who has read previous
books of mine is a trespasser in this one, which has been
compiled for a younger generation. I do not regard it as a
children's book, however; I simply hope it is a book that
anyone born less than fourteen or fifteen years ago may
enjoy. I have written a lot of verses about children, but
they are of no interest to children, as they were written for
parents; on the other hand I have been pleased to discover
that some of the pieces dealing with the aberrations
and anomalies of the adult world have found favor here
and there among the kids. This makes me very proud;
indeed at such times I feel like the cryptographer who has
cracked the code, or the first man to reach the moon,
because, in my experience, full communication between the
generations simply doesn't exist. There is a curtain between
the mind of the child and the mind of the parent
as opaque as any between the mind of the Occidental and
the mind of the Russian or the Chinese. Words may be
interchanged, but they do not mean the same thing to one
as to the other; the language is purely diplomatic - or
undiplomatic - and the final understanding
is about equal to that achieved by diplomats.
Of course it may be that if the kids do
like any of these verses it is for the very reason that
the Kremlin is gratified by any sign of the collapse of
capitalism; watchful young eyes may here perceive indications
of the breakup of the old people's world. Nevertheless,
flushed by a few minor successes among my juniors, I have
risked hastening the revolution by gathering for them from
my past this potpourri of foolish jokes, anecdotes, fables,
and other trivia, embellished with rhymes and conclusions
both true and false. Perhaps for the very reason that this
particular collection is not calculated, dear parents who
have not kept out, to present us as the omniscient and
infallible paragons they think we think we are, it may
persuade our young to treat us more gently when they
take over. God willing, it may even persuade a
disreputable handful that they are as silly as we.
O. N.
Copyright © by Linell Nash Smith and Isabel Nash Eberstadt.
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