THE great American humorist Ogden Nash broods about language in this engaging sample from The Old Dog Barks Backwards, a posthumous collection of 77 of his verses, not previously published in book form (Andre Deutsch, 1973).

WHAT DO YOU WANT,

A MEANINGFUL DIALOGUE,

OR A SATISFACTORY TALK?

Bad money drives out good.

That's Gresham's Law which I have not until recently

understood.

No economist I, to economics I have an incurable

allergy,

But now I understand Gresham's Law through obvious

analogy.

Just as bad money drives the good beyond our reach,

So has the jargon of the hippie, the huckster and the

bureaucrat debased the sterling of our once lucid

speech.

What's worse, it has induced the amnesia by which

I am faced;

I can't recall the original phraseology which the

jargon has replaced.

Would that I had the memory of a computer or an

elephant!

What used I to say instead of uptight, clout and

thrust and relevant?

Linguistics becomes an even eerier area, like I feel

like I'm in Oz,

Just trying to tell it like it was.