The Wombat
The wombat lives across the seas,
Among the far Antipodes.
He may exist on nuts and berries,
Or then again, on missionaries;
His distant habitat precludes
Conclusive knowledge of his moods,
But I would not engage the wombat
In any form of mortal combat.
Commentary
Wombats have a bad press on the internet. Among the geek community we
are known merely as an acronym - a “Waste Of Money, Brains And Time”. Only you can redress the balance by including for the first time in your mailing list one of the world’s classic poems, Ogden Nash’s ‘Wombat’. I note that you have not had a silly poem for some time, so this should just about fit the bill.
— Wombat
Martin adds
Is it just me, or is there something intrinsically funny about the word ‘wombat’?
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From the Wondering Minstrels mailing list, 1999–2008.
Matt Chanoff · 24 March 2004
It’s one of those words that sounds as if it ought to spell something backwards.
Matt Chanoff
Ian Baillieu · 25 March 2004
Presumably your subscribers know that wombats are ground-dwelling, burrowing marsupials native to Australia. They can grow as large as a fair sized pig. They may look cuddly, but are hard-bodied and heavy, and have wiry-tough fur and strong claws for digging. Though not aggressive, they can be self-absorbed and determined, and capable of nipping the feet of anyone who stands in their way.
I was told once that some 19th century writer in Britain made good money concocting stories about having travelled in Australia, without ever having been there. He was caught out when he described ‘a flight of wombats rising in the dusk’.
John Wright · 2 April 2004
Yes, but do they eat missionaries?
It’s a shame that more contemporary poets won’t write simple humor. They might sell a few more copies of the journals and it would save them the trouble of encoding presumably important subject matter in nearly incomprehensible fragments.
This is a simple, pleasant poem written in language as upright as prose. I can always use more like these. I’m not especially familiar with Nash, but I’ll be shortly off to learn.
John