The Tale of Custard the Dragon is a poem for children written by Ogden Nash. [1] A picture book of the 1936 poem with illustrations by Lynn M. Munsinger was published in 1995. [2] [3]
The poem has been described as "probably his most famous poem for kids". [4] In 1959, it inspired Leonard Lipton to write a poem that evolved into the song "Puff, the Magic Dragon". [5] [6] This poem is written as a ballad which presents a short story with parody.
The poem opens with the introduction of Belinda and her company of pets: Ink (the kitten), Blink (the mouse), Mustard (the dog) and Custard (the cowardly dragon). Everyone in the house is very fond of bragging and boasting about their bravery, except for Custard. Despite his frightening looks, the dragon cries for a nice safe cage and gets tickled mercilessly. His inmates take his cowardness for granted and make him the butt of ridicule, also calling him Percival as he is weak.
This poem includes a lot irony, as the fierce looking dragon is weak and scared unlike story book dragons that are fierce and powerful.
All of a sudden, a pirate breaks into the house with pistols in his hands. Panic-stricken, everyone flees from the scene. However, the seemingly coward dragon chases at the pirate and devours him. Thus, he proves himself as the bravest of all and everyone feels obliged to him.
Now, as the danger is over, everyone again goes about blowing their own trumpet as before and Custard continues to ask for a nice safe cage. [7]
A dragon is a magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in Western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as winged, horned, and capable of breathing fire. Dragons in eastern cultures are usually depicted as wingless, four-legged, serpentine creatures with above-average intelligence. Commonalities between dragons' traits are often a hybridization of feline, reptilian, mammalian, and avian features.
Frederic Ogden Nash was an American poet well known for his light verse, of which he wrote more than 500 pieces. With his unconventional rhyming schemes, he was declared by The New York Times to be the country's best-known producer of humorous poetry.
"Puff, the Magic Dragon" is a song written by Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary from a poem by Leonard Lipton. It was made popular by Peter, Paul and Mary in a 1962 recording released in January 1963.
Edith Nesbit was an English writer and poet, who published her books for children as E. Nesbit. She wrote or collaborated on more than 60 such books. She was also a political activist and co-founder of the Fabian Society, a socialist organisation later affiliated to the Labour Party.
William Sherman Pène du Bois was an American writer and illustrator of books for young readers. He is best known for The Twenty-One Balloons, published in April 1947 by Viking Press, for which he won the 1948 Newbery Medal. He was twice a runner-up for the Caldecott Medal for illustrating books written by others, and the two Caldecott Honor picture books, which he also wrote.
Roobarb is a British animated children's television series, created by Grange Calveley and originally shown on BBC1 just before the evening news. Each cartoon of the original series, written by Calveley and directed by Bob Godfrey, was about five minutes long. Thirty episodes were made, and it was first shown on 21 October 1974. The theme is that of the friendly rivalry between Roobarb, a green dog with an overactive imagination, and Custard, the mischievous laconic pink cat from next door.
The Matter of France, also known as the Carolingian cycle, is a body of literature and legendary material associated with the history of France, in particular involving Charlemagne and his associates. The cycle springs from the Old French chansons de geste, and was later adapted into a variety of art forms, including Renaissance epics and operas. Together with the Matter of Britain, which concerned King Arthur, and the Matter of Rome, comprising material derived from and inspired by classical mythology, it was one of the great European literary cycles that figured repeatedly in medieval literature.
Michael Hague is an American illustrator, primarily of children's fantasy books.
The Langs' Fairy Books are a series of 25 collections of true and fictional stories for children published between 1889 and 1913 by Andrew Lang and his wife, Leonora Blanche Alleyne. The best known books of the series are the 12 collections of fairy tales also known as Andrew Lang's "Coloured" Fairy Books or Andrew Lang's Fairy Books of Many Colors. In all, the volumes feature 798 stories, besides the 153 poems in The Blue Poetry Book.
Edith Ogden Harrison was a writer of children's books and fairy tales in the early decades of the 20th century. She was the wife of Carter Harrison, Jr., five-term mayor of Chicago.
Leonard Lipton was an American author, filmmaker, lyricist and inventor. At age 19, Lipton wrote the poem that became the basis for the lyrics to the song "Puff, the Magic Dragon". He wrote books on independent filmmaking and become a pioneer in the field of projected three-dimensional imagery. Leonard Lipton developed 3D cinema technology that is used in RealD 3D cinemas. His technology is used to show 3D films on more than 30,000 theater screens worldwide.
Cowardy Custard is a musical revue and was one of the last Noël Coward shows staged during his life. It was devised by Gerard Frow, Alan Strachan and Wendy Toye. A book, also titled Cowardy Custard, was published in connection with the revue, similarly celebrating the Coward image.
Helen Lester is an American children's writer, best known for her character Tacky the Penguin in many of her children's stories.
Puff the Magic Dragon is a 30-minute animated television special based on the song of the same name made notable by Peter, Paul and Mary. First aired October 30, 1978, on CBS, and produced by Fred Wolf Films, it features Burgess Meredith as the voice the title character.
This is a list of books by Mercedes Lackey, arranged by collection.
Carroll Burleigh Colby was an American writer, primarily of nonfiction children's books. He wrote more than 100 books that were widely circulated in public and school libraries in the United States. He is best known for Strangely Enough! (1959).
The Dragons of Krynn is a collection of fantasy short stories, released in March 1994. It includes stories written about the mightiest creatures of Krynn, the dragons. It is the first of a trilogy of the Anthologies series.
The Land of Stories is a series of children's fiction, adventure, and fantasy books written by American author, actor, and singer Chris Colfer. The first book, The Wishing Spell, was released on July 17, 2012, with the sixth and final book published in July 2017. Colfer started plans for a prequel series in 2016, and has since published three books in this series, beginning with A Tale of Magic... in 2019.
Puffs, or Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic is a 2015 original play by New York–based playwright Matt Cox. The play is a parody of the Harry Potter book series by J. K. Rowling, but from the perspective of the Puffs, who were inspired by the Hogwarts house, Hufflepuff.