A reader in Columbus, Ohio reports a “Samuel Johnson sighting in Ogden Nash.” In the December 21, 1968 issue of The New Yorker he found the poem “Is There a Dr. Johnson in the House.” It’s a typical irregularly lined, jokily rhymed production by Nash that begins:
“Do you know
with whom I feel a temperamental kinship? I will tell you with whom—
It is Dr.
Johnson who said, ‘Tomorrow I propose to regulate my room.’
That
statement has a valiant sound to it,
But, being a
temperamental kinsman of his, I bet he never got around to it.
Myself in a
similar situation I daily find;
Tomorrow I
plan to regulate my mind.”
I’m unable to find the line by Johnson, though it sounds genuine. Johnson’s reputation as a messy housekeeper is established. I would be grateful for assistance in identifying the quote, assuming it’s legitimate. At a retirement lunch earlier this week I was accused of the opposite failing. My former office on campus was described as “monastic.” It’s true: I don’t like clutter in my surroundings or prose. Nash’s poem is less about messiness than procrastination, which Johnson defines in his Dictionary as “delay; dilatoriness.”
[Dave Lull
to the rescue: Dave found the Johnsonism in a prayer Johnson wrote on September
7, 1764.]
1 comment:
Thanks to Mr. Lull for the citation, which eluded me as well.
A favorite maxim:
"I feel that things are passing. If I want to do something, the time is now." -Jules Renard (1907)
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