Nash was still at Doubleday when the New Yorker accepted his first published work, the humorous poem, Spring Comes to Murray Hill in 1930. The following year saw the publication of his first collection, Hard Lines, which in its first year had 7 printings, all sell-outs, and established Nash's idiosyncratic style. It was followed by many more collections, all successful. In 1943, he collaborated with S J Perelman to write the text of the musical comedy One Touch of Venus, with music by Kurt Weill. This too was a great success.

The impact of Nash's verse often lies in his rhymes and puns, while Nash's use of irrelevant digressions adds yet another ingredient to the comic mix. Nash claimed that he learnt his art from the unintentionally awful poetry of the notorious "Sweet Singer of Michigan", Julia Moore.