Ogden Nash

A Caution to Everybody

A Caution to Everybody - meaning Summary

Flight Before Thought

Nash uses a brief, comic analogy to warn against misplaced progress. He points to the auk, which became extinct after losing flight, and then flips the image onto humanity: people may likewise bring about their ruin by abandoning basic prudence and physical grounding in favor of technological "flight" before developing the judgment to manage it. The poem is a satirical caution about haste and misplaced priorities.

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Consider the auk; Becoming extinct because he forgot how to fly, and could only walk. Consider man, who may well become extinct Because he forgot how to walk and learned how to fly before he thinked.

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