Tableau At Twilight – a poem by Ogden Nash

I sit in the dusk. I am all alone.
Enter a child and an ice-cream cone.

A parent is easily beguiled
By sight of this coniferous child.

The friendly embers warmer gleam,
The cone begins to drip ice cream.

Cones are composed of many a vitamin.
My lap is not the place to bitamin.

Although my raiment is not chinchilla,
I flinch to see it become vanilla.

Coniferous child, when vanilla melts
I’d rather it melted somewhere else.

Exit child with remains of cone.
I sit in the dusk. I am all alone,

Muttering spells like an angry Druid,
Alone, in the dusk, with the cleaning fluid.

Ogden Nash

Notes: The word ‘bitamin’ is a nonsense word intended to rhyme with ‘vitamin’ – in the traditional pronunciation, the ‘vit’ part would rhyme with ‘bite’. This is because vitamin is short for ‘vital amine’

Coniferous refers to something which bears cones – normally it’s trees which are coniferous, bearing cones:

I hope you enjoyed this poem with notes!

Best wishes

Lis Goodwin, your voice coach