Be Glad Your Nose Is on Your Face

Have you read any of Jack Prelutsky's poems? If you haven't, you should treat yourself to one. You might want to start with "Be Glad Your Nose Is on Your Face." This is an extremely well thought out poem that epitomizes the power of poetry.

Be glad your nose is on your face,
not pasted on some other place,
for if it were where it is not,
you might dislike your nose a lot.

Imagine if your precious nose
were sandwiched in between your toes,
that clearly would not be a treat,
for you’d be forced to smell your feet.

Your nose would be a source of dread
were it attached atop your head,
it soon would drive you to despair,
forever tickled by your hair.

Within your ear, your nose would be
an absolute catastrophe,
for when you were obliged to sneeze,
your brain would rattle from the breeze.

Your nose, instead, through thick and thin,
remains between your eyes and chin,
not pasted on some other place—
be glad your nose is on your face!

The first thing I noticed when I read the poem, besides its obvious humor, was its rhythm. Its meter is da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM. Each line has four iambic feet and contains eight syllables.

The poem also has a rhyme that's pleasant to listen to. In each stanza, the first two lines rhyme, as do the last two.

Finally, the poem ends up where it began, its last line the same as its first. Prelutsky skillfully guides the poem's readers to an ending that is also a new beginning.

It's not easy to write this type of poem. It reminds me of a sculpted work of art.