To my Valentine Ogden Nash Date Objectives 1

To my Valentine – Ogden Nash Date: Objectives 1. Introduce the poem. 2. Examine the images and themes of Love: (Be careful not to use this for ‘celebrating a person as no one person is named. ) Spend one minute writing as many words describing or connected to LOVE as you can. Parents Chocolate

To My Valentine More than a catbird hates a cat, Or a criminal hates a clue, Or the Axis hates the United States, That's how much I love you more than a duck can swim, And more than a grapefruit squirts, I love you more than a gin rummy is a bore, And more than a toothache hurts. As a shipwrecked sailor hates the sea, Or a juggler hates a shove, As a hostess detests unexpected guests, That's how much you I love you more than a wasp can sting, And more than the subway jerks, I love you as much as a beggar needs a crutch, And more than a hangnail irks. I swear to you by the stars above, And below, if such there be, As the High Court loathes perjurious oathes, That's how you're loved by me. Ogden Nash

To My Valentine More than a catbird hates a cat, Or a criminal hates a clue, Or the Axis hates the United States, That's how much I love you more than a duck can swim, And more than a grapefruit squirts, I love you more than a gin rummy is a bore, And more than a toothache hurts. As a shipwrecked sailor hates the sea, Or a juggler hates a shove, As a hostess detests unexpected guests, That's how much you I love you more than a wasp can sting, And more than the subway jerks, I love you as much as a beggar needs a crutch, And more than a hangnail irks. I swear to you by the stars above, And below, if such there be, As the High Court loathes perjurious oathes, That's how you're loved by me. Ogden Nash Exercise 1: First Impressions Having read the poem once, write down one sentence in response and share it. Try using: I think, I know, I don’t know, I want to know.

Notes – notes copy – stanza one • This poem is overflowing with images, none of which are traditionally used to describe love. You could say that the poet is making fun of regular love poems by using these words. What have these 3 lines in common? More than a catbird hates a cat, Or a criminal hates a clue, Or the Axis hates the United States, That's how much I love you.

Notes – stanza 2 • The poet tries to portray the strength of his love. It is natural. It is confusing. It is so strong that it hurts. (Nash told his students that he wrote this when he was lovesick? Can you see his frustration? ) I love you more than a duck can swim, And more than a grapefruit squirts, I love you more than a gin rummy is a bore, And more than a toothache hurts.

Notes – Stanza 3 • ‘Hate’ is very powerful emotion which is easy to understand. Describing how strong these different forms of hate are helps us to understand the level of love he feels in comparison. • Do you find it easier to • say what you hate? As a shipwrecked sailor hates the sea, Or a juggler hates a shove, As a hostess detests unexpected guests, That's how much you I love.

Notes – Stanza 4 • There are many images from nature used, showing how natural, animal or primal his love is. The image of the beggar also portrays that he “needs” this love. If his love was a crutch (metaphor) what nice things could we say about her? What would she be doing? I love you more than a wasp can sting, And more than the subway jerks, I love you as much as a beggar needs a crutch, And more than a hangnail irks.

Notes – Stanza 5 • Love is as complex as law and has as many possibilities as there are stars. The poet almost ends on a simple promise to above that he is in love, but to describe it so simply does not do love justice. I swear to you by the stars above, And below, if such there be, As the High Court loathes perjurious oathes, That's how you're loved by me.

Questions: Remember “quotes”. 1. The poet gives 15 examples to compare with his love in this poem. What are the most powerful three in your opinion and why? 2. How serious do you think Nash is in this poem? 3. Did you enjoy reading this poem?

Homework part 2 • Learn the first 2 stanzas More than a catbird hates a cat, Or a criminal hates a clue, Or the Axis hates the United States, That's how much I love you more than a duck can swim, And more than a grapefruit squirts, I love you more than a gin rummy is a bore, And more than a toothache hurts.

To My Valentine More than a catbird hates a cat, Or a criminal hates a clue, Or the Axis hates the United States, That's how much I love you more than a duck can swim, And more than a grapefruit squirts, I love you more than a gin rummy is a bore, And more than a toothache hurts. As a shipwrecked sailor hates the sea, Or a juggler hates a shove, As a hostess detests unexpected guests, That's how much you I love you more than a wasp can sting, And more than the subway jerks, I love you as much as a beggar needs a crutch, And more than a hangnail irks. I swear to you by the stars above, And below, if such there be, As the High Court loathes perjurious oathes, That's how you're loved by me. Ogden Nash

Part 2

To my Valentine 2 – Ogden Nash Date: Objectives • To examine the poetic techniques of To my Valentine, including: • Repetition • Rhyme (Alliteration, assonance and consonance) • Simile • Tone Warm-up next slide.

To My Valentine More than a catbird hates a cat, Or a criminal hates a clue, Or the Axis hates the United States, That's how much I love you more than a duck can swim, And more than a grapefruit squirts, I love you more than a gin rummy is a bore, And more than a toothache hurts. As a shipwrecked sailor hates the sea, Or a juggler hates a shove, As a hostess detests unexpected guests, That's how much you I love. Warm-up exercise Certain words are repeated multiple times in the poem. Write in your copies the words and how many times they appear. 1. . . . X 5 I love you more than a wasp can sting, And more than the subway jerks, I love you as much as a beggar needs a crutch, And more than a hangnail irks. I swear to you by the stars above, And below, if such there be, As the High Court loathes perjurious oathes, That's how you're loved by me. Ogden Nash 2. . . . X 7 3. . . . X 8 4. . . . X 8 ( one with ‘‘re’) Leave out ‘I’, ‘a’, ‘or’, ‘and’ ‘than’

Notes – repetition • The poet repeats the words “love” and “hate” throughout the poem, asking the reader to notice them. In each stanza, one emotion is dominant but the forth line brings in the other emotion. This back and fourth is like a passionate battle, with love winning in the end. • Question: Let’s create some sport similes here. The stanzas go hate, love, hate, love, hate/love, back and fourth like a game of. . . .

Notes – Rhyme • This is a simple four line rhyme poem with a steady rhythm. There at least two rhymes in every stanza which keeps the poem fun and creates lots of interesting images. There is also internal rhyme in the poem in the form of assonance, consonance and alliteration. • Three Tasks: 1. In stanza 1, how many words begin with ‘c’? (Alliteration) 2. In stanza 2, how many ‘o’ and ‘a’ are there and is there a pattern? (Assonance) 3. In stanza 3, just how many letter ‘s’ are there? (Consonance)

Notes – Rhyme • Alliteration, assonance and consonance emphasise certain words, speed up the pace of a poem and most importantly here, they make the words sound good together? • Question: ‘They sound good together’. . Are we going to let that simile slip by?

Notes – Simile (Not looking at a simile is like not picking up a hundred euro note. . You’ll regret it. ) • To say that you are helpless against the overpowering force of love makes little sense. To compare how you feel to victims, including a shipwrecked sailor, makes it much clearer. This is the power of similes. As a shipwrecked sailor hates the sea, Interesting challange: Or a juggler hates a shove, Can anyone make any positive comparisons As a hostess detests unexpected guests, or simile to describe love. . So that we end That's how much you I love. on a high note

Homework • Copy the poem into your notes with images beside it. • There are MANY images here so choose the big ones or combine into one super image. (Nazi cat behind bars for stanza one for example. ) • Remember, the point is to help you learn the poem so choose images you see as being linked to the words.

To My Valentine More than a catbird hates a cat, Or a criminal hates a clue, Or the Axis hates the United States, That's how much I love you more than a duck can swim, And more than a grapefruit squirts, I love you more than a gin rummy is a bore, And more than a toothache hurts. As a shipwrecked sailor hates the sea, Or a juggler hates a shove, As a hostess detests unexpected guests, That's how much you I love you more than a wasp can sting, And more than the subway jerks, I love you as much as a beggar needs a crutch, And more than a hangnail irks. I swear to you by the stars above, And below, if such there be, As the High Court loathes perjurious oathes, That's how you're loved by me. Ogden Nash