artist that hit its nadir during his generation. She
declares, ‘‘Nash had appalling luck for a poet: he
was happy, prolific, and financially stable. Nash
was especially unlucky because chronologically
if not temperamentally he is in the generation of
Modernist poets, whose standard for signifi-
cance is measured in angsts.’’ Like many of
Nash’s fans, both of these writers seem to feel
that he has been underestimated by a literary
establishment that has been unable to find a
simple category for his unique talent.
CRITICISMDavid Kelly
Kelly is a writer and an instructor of creative writing
and literature. In this essay, he examines the psycho-
logical implications of ‘‘The Hippopotamus’’ and
how they affect the poem’s humor.
A mistake that is often made when studying
the poetry of Ogden Nash comes from readers
who dismissively think that what they are read-
ing exists only for laughs and nothing more. It
is true that most of Nash’s poems are meant
primarily to raise a chuckle. They focus on sur-
prising readers with an unexpected turn of a
phrase, showing off the poet’s wit and general
good nature through his willingness to use a
nonsensical word or a needlessly obtuse expres-
sion when a common, sane one would work just
fine. But it was Nash’s particular genius, and his
claim to ongoing relevance, that the fun in his
poetry would not be sustainable unless it was
supported by significant, substantial ideas. This
is not necessarily because of anything that he
planned to do; one can easily imagine that
Nash, if asked, would claim with horror that
the last thing he ever wanted was to make people
think. But in poem after poem there is a core of
reality that echoes after the verbal delight of the
joke has leapt out and then faded away. Some
poets might be tempted to use the forum of a
well-crafted stanza and a supportive readership
to unload their complaints about the miseries of
life, and others might feel an obligation to add
some misery to a happy poem to give it balance;
clearly, this is not what Nash is up to. There is
nothing very miserable in his vision of reality.
His humor is not left to hold the readers on its
own, but it is not balanced with sadness, either:
in an Ogden Nash poem, verbal giddiness is
anchored by solid truth.
A fine example of this effect at work can be
found in Nash’s poem ‘‘The Hippopotamus.’’ It
is a work that clearly aims to make readers
laugh, and the focus of that laugh is in the
poem’s last word; while the animal being talked
about is itself amusing in its strangeness, as is
hippopotamus, an appropriately large and goofy
word to describe it, the irregular pluralhippopot-
amiis a true plaything in the hands of a humor
writer like Nash. His use of it is his way of having
fun with the language, a sort of parody of the
byzantine pluralization rules that turn mouse
intomice,gooseintogeese, andoxintooxen.
Although the verbal twist at the end seems
to be the reason that ‘‘The Hippopotamus’’
exists, it is not the only thing that makes the
poem stand up. In order for Nash to take readers
all the way down eight lines to the end, to keep
them engaged along the trip, he had to give his
poem, however brief, some twists and turns. And
it was in doing this that, intentionally or not, he
infused the lines with more wisdom than a simple
sample of light verse needs.
The basic premise of ‘‘The Hippopotamus’’ is
that hippopotamuses are so different in their basic
structure than human beings that they are laugh-
able. This much is an idea that most people can
agree with. Nature has given them large mouths
that seem stretched into permanent smiles and legs
thataresoshortincomparisontotheirgirthasto
be almost pointless. They are too slow to pose any
threat of attack. Unlike other strange species, their
strangeness is neither beautiful nor dangerous,
and to the human observer laughing seems to be
the only option.
But to get from the hippo’s funny appear-
ance at the start of line 1 to the funny word at theNASH SOMEHOW MANAGES, WITHOUT
BREAKING THE POEM’S POETIC OR SPIRITUAL
RHYTHM, TO SLIP GUILT AND INADEQUACY, AND
EVEN A LITTLE EXISTENTIAL DREAD, INTO A FUNNY
POEM ABOUT A FUNNY ANIMAL THAT HAS A FUNNY
PLURALIZATION OF ITS NAME.’’The Hippopotamus