animal itself are surprised at the energy with
which Nash begins.
LINE 2
The second line of the poem is anchored by
the author’s use of first-person plural pronouns.
In the discussion of what the animal looks like
to ‘‘us’’ and how funny ‘‘we’’ think it is, Nash is
putting forward the assumption that all, or at
least most, people feel similarly about the hippo-
potamus’s looks. Yet the communal first person
that the poem uses is not as general as it might
at first seem. The hippopotamus, with its wide
mouth and small ears and flaring nostrils, its
massive girth and short legs, would only look
funny to people who are not familiar with it.
This line would be more relevant to people of
North America than to people in the animal’s
indigenous sub-Saharan Africa or other hot cli-
mates where such physical adaptations would be
more common.
LINE 3
While the tone of the first line of the poem is
amazement and the second line deals in playful
humor, the third line takes yet another turn in
tone, introducing a dark and foreboding ele-
ment. Nash changes directions, contrasting the
humorous looks of the hippopotamus with
moments of somber reflection. Although the
change in the mood of the poem can be expected,
the negative words he uses may seem excessive.
Their seriousness is part of Nash’s style: he over-
states the somberness of a moment of reflection,
making it sound like more than it is, for comic
effect.LINE 4
As the first half of the poem comes to an
end, the speaker refers to himself in the first-
person singular, identifying the poem’s particu-
lar point of view as the product of a specific ‘‘I.’’
This word usage indicates more than just an
identity; it leads right into the issue of self-
consciousness. The speaker inverts the poem’s
perspective in this line and, instead of consider-
ing what the hippopotamus looks like to him,
thinks of what the hippopotamus thinks about
him, as well as humans in general. This kind of
personification is common in poetry, though it is
not common in ordinary discourse. In ordinary
discussions, the idea that animals might form
opinions about things and people that they see
is usually not even brought up.Stanza 2
LINE 5
The tone of the poem takes another turn in
direction in the second stanza, this time emulat-
ing a religious tract. The first thing that gives the
poem a religious aura is the fact that the speaker
is imploring the hippopotamus to find peace.
The fact that the wordpeaceis said twice helps
to give the feeling that the speaker is appealing to
spirituality over logic. As the mood of spiritual-
ism takes over in this line, Nash uses the word
thou, which is most frequently associated with
archaic biblical language, establishing without
doubt that he is addressing the hippopotamus
from a religious perspective.LINE 6
The self-reflection begun in line 4 continues
in this line, with the speaker offering the gener-
alized assessment that human beings have no
problem with the way that other human beings
look to them. This is one question that the poet
can answer, after finding no solution to the pre-
viously stated riddle about what human beings
look like to hippopotamuses.
After the spiritual overtones of line 5, the
poem returns in this line to a common, casualMEDIA
ADAPTATIONS ‘‘The Hippopotamus’’ is included with other
poems read by Ogden Nash on a 1970 record
album issued by Caedmon titledParents
Keep Out.
The poem was put to music by William
Perry and is included on the videocassette
A Zooful of Poetry, which was released by
Monterey Video of Thousand Oaks, Cali-
fornia, in 1978.
The Nascent Home Page of Ogden Nashat
http://www.ogdennash.org includes a col-
lection of Nash’s poetry and a blog about
Nash-related events.The Hippopotamus