This book is just super. It starts with an introduction by Anthony Burgess written very much in style of Nash. It has very cute line drawings by Nash himself. In the end, there is an index of first lines and an index of last lines. Which is great: how else would you find a poem which starts with “There is an emotion to which we are most of us adduced” or ends on “And I think the Kremlin ought to work out some plan for taking it away from those who have it and giving it to those who need it” while the name of the poem is A Clean Conscience Never Relaxes? No way.
The titles of his poems (such as Portrait of the Artist as a Prematurely Old Man or A Dream of Innocent Orgies, or, The Most Unforgettable Characters I Never Met) and books (like I’m a Stranger Here Myself) are brilliant in their own right. And I think I’d never know the word “objurgate” if not for The Centipede.
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