This is Going to Hurt Just a little Bit

This is Going to Hurt Just a Little Bit

Frederic Ogden Nash

One of the most widely appreciated and imitated writers of light verse, Frederic Ogden Nash, was born in Rye, New York, on 19^th August, 1902.

His poems, also had an intensely anti-establishment quality that resounded with many Americans, particularly during the Great Depression.

Nash was a keen observer of American social life, and frequently mocked religious moralizing and conservative politicians.

He died on May 19, 1971.

Summary

“This is Going to Hurt Just A Little Bit”, is a humourous poem by Ogden Nash. Through exaggerations and overstatements, he makes fun of the dentist and his methods of treatment.

The poet begins by saying that he does not like to sit in a dentist’s chair with his wide-open mouth. It is ridiculous and painful.

Every time he leaves the dentist’s clinic, he hopes never to come back again, but he has to visit the dentist again and again, against all his hopes, to keep his teeth in good condition.

There are tortures that are physical and some tortures are mental. But being at the dentist is both mental and physical at the same time. One can name these types of tortures as dental torture.

One suffers physical torture in the form of pulling and pushing, pressing into the gum as well as the mental torture of an uneasy sitting posture – with wide open mouth and jaws digging into one’s chest.

The poet is unable to keep his calm nature while sitting in the dentist’s chair. Extreme pain makes him dig his fingernails deep into his palm. The poet is humourous when he says that he is making serious changes to the various lines on his palm and altering the course of his future by digging deep into his palm.

The poet says that it is very difficult to retain one’s cheerful nature when you are at the dentist’s chair. It is one of the rarest of situations that lacks dignity and self-respect. One cannot be the same calm and dignified individual in the dentist’s chair.

The poet exaggerates the works of the dentist saying that his works are similar to that of the repairing of the road. It is a mess with stone crushers, concrete mixers, drills, and steam rollers. The poet exaggerates the equipments used by the dentist to that of road repairing ones. When the repairing of your teeth goes on every one of you nerves, sinews and muzzles are troubled and under attack.

The dentist attacks the patient with his thumbs and press hard on their gums. The patient, already under severe pain find it extremely horrible. You go to the dentist to polish your teeth. But when the dentist works on your teeth you have got every reason to fear that he is demolishing your teeth completely. He is that rough and unmerciful.

The patient would naturally be terrified, when he sees the dentist working with the help of a mirror. The poet then compares the dentist to a bear. The bear attacks its prey, tears into them, mauls them and only mangled remains are left behind. One cannot be sure whether it is love or hatred that governs the dentist. One has every right to suspect his intentions. The Romans used to call a bear, Ursa. Ursa was a female hear but the dentist here is a male one.

The poet once again brings in the use of mirror into our notice. How can one be sure the dentist won’t mix up right and left while treating with the mirror? We often mix up our left and right, when we try to tie our bow tie, with the help of a mirror. It would be a horrible situation, if the dentist treats the wrong side, and wrong teeth.

The dentist would say after some times that is all. But it is not the end. There are more things to come. One cannot trust a dentist. He will then coat your mouth with something similar to the stuff used to make the horse hoof shine better. Here the poet is hammering a last nail into the reader’s mind by creating a suspicion against the dentist. Does the dentist use the same substance that is used to put shine on the horse hoof? It is terrible then.

When you get to your feet staggering and dizzy and is about to emit a sigh of relief hoping that everything is over and this was only for once, the next bombshell comes.

The unsympathetic and brutal dentist says, “Come back in three monce”.

As in the case of “Hopen” the poet coins another word in “monce” to rhyme with “once”. It too has a humourous effect.

The poet is pathetic. He thinks that it is a vicious circle, that the Fate has asked him to suffer.

One goes to the dentist to keep his teeth in good condition. But being at the dentist is something, that one wishes to forget, and never wants to be in. However, the dentist is like a snare that never allow one freedom.

Going to the dentist is an evil cycle that never ends.

It is with the hope of never going to that dental clinic again, that one visit it, but it is a fact that one has to go to the dentist, again and again, to keep one’s teeth in good condition.

Questions and Answers

1. What does the poet hate more than most other things?

The poet hates sitting in a dentist’s chair, with his mouth wide open. It is a humiliating and uncomfortable position.

2. What is the hope that the poet hopes against?

The poet hopes that, he would not have to come back, ever again to the dentist. It is a hope against hope, and he will have to come back to keep his teeth in good condition.

3. What does ‘hope hopen’ mean?

Hope Hopen is in fact similar to ‘hope hoped.’ (Like dream dreamt, plan planned, sketch sketched, etc.). The poet coins the word hopen to rhyme with word open. It is a part of the poetic license.

4. What is your opinion about dental pain?

Dental pain is unbearable. It is one of the most unfortunate things to visit a dentist, especially for a tooth filling or drilling. The patient is bereaved of all his dignity and self-respect.

5. How is dental torture unique?

Dental torture is unique because while other pains are of either physical or mental in nature, dental pain is both at the same time.

6. Why is it hard to be self-possessed while sitting in a dentist’s chair?

In a dentist’s chair, one cannot be self-possessed, calm and composed.  First of all, it is an uncomfortable sitting posture with one’s mouth wide open and jaws digging into one’s chest. Secondly it takes away one’s dignity and self-respect. The extreme pain makes one dig one’s finger nails into one’s palm.

7. Why do fingernails make serious alterations in the palm?

While in the dentist’s chair, the poet suppresses his dental pain by tightening his clutch of the fist and subsequently his fingernails go deep into his palm.

8. What does the poet refer to by the three kinds of lines?

The three kinds of lines in the palm are lifeline, love line and other important lines. It is a reference to palmistry. An expert palmist foretells a person’s future by studying the lines in his palm. It is believed that there are several lines that determine a person’s fate.

9. What is peculiar about the position one remains in a dentist’s clinic?

While sitting in a dentist’s chair, one has to forget all decency and dignity associated with self-respect and honour. It is not a posture that one ever wishes to be in.

10. Why does this position lack dignity?

One does not normally sit anywhere with his mouth wide open. It is against decency and etiquette. Again, it hurts one to keep his mouth wide open for a long time. One’s jaws dig deep into one’s chest while sitting at the dentist’s chair. Surely it is not a very comfortable position.

11. Do you justify the poet’s comparing the mouth with a section of road under repair?

The poet’s comparing his mouth with a section of the road under repair is an exaggeration. Like the road under construction, with all the stones, crushers and concrete mixtures, the mouth undergoes a similar chaos. The dentist’s tools play the role played by the crushers and mixtures while the loose teeth fall cluttered in the mouth.

12. What is the effect of the dental makeover upon the poet’s nerves?

With the dental makeover under progress, every nerve of the poet is irked and he is in excruciating pain.

13. Why are some people unfortunate?

Some people are unfortunate at the dentist’s clinic because the unfeeling dentist pushes his thumbs forcibly on the teeth in pulling and shaking them.

14. What does the patient expect from the dentist? How does the dentist betray this expectation?

The patient wants to get his teeth polished by the dentist but he experiences excruciating pain as if his teeth and mouth get demolished.

15. A dentist uses a mirror. Why does it add to the terror?

The poet fears to be with a dentist chiefly because the latter examines and pulls the teeth with the help of a tiny mirror. He might confuse, the right and left, and extract the wrong teeth.

16. What does Ursa point to? What is the connection?
    Ursa is the Latin word for bear. Both the dentist and a bear have the common nature of digging into their prey and causing extreme pain.

Roman Myth of Ursa:

Callisto was a beautiful nymph and the daughter of Lycaon, King of Arcadia. She was a follower of goddess Artemis (Diana) and vowed to chastity.

The god Jupiter (Zeus) noticed her and was smitten with her beauty. Jupiter’s wife, Juno (Hera), became extremely jealous of Callisto.

Sometime later, Juno discovered that Callisto had given birth to a son and decided that Jupiter must have been the father.

To punish her, Juno changed Callisto into a bear so she would no longer be beautiful. (Or by Jupiter to hide his misdeeds and to lessen Juno’s anger)

Callisto’s son, called Arcas, was adopted and grew up to be a hunter, while Callisto continued to live in the forest as a bear.

One day Callisto saw Arcas and was so overjoyed at seeing her son that she rushed up to him, forgetting she was a bear.

Arcas thought he was being attacked and shot an arrow at Callisto.

Jupiter saw the arrow and stopped it from hitting Callisto.

To save Callisto and her son from further damage from Juno, Jupiter changed Arcas into a bear also, grabbed them both by their tails, and swung them both into the heavens so they could live peacefully among the stars.

The strength of the throw caused the short stubby tails of the bears to become elongated.

Juno was even angrier with Jupiter and managed to exact still more revenge on poor Callisto and Arcas.

She went to the gods of the sea and forbade them to let the two bears wade in their water or streams on their long and endless journey around the pole star. The two constellations, Ursa Major, and Ursa Minor, signifies Callisto, and Arcas.

• Why does the poet fear that the dentist could mix up?

The dentist uses a mirror while treating the patient. The poet fears that he might mix up left and right as we do when we tie a bow tie with the help of a mirror.

• What goes wrong when one tries to tie a bow tie with the help of a mirror?

There is a possibility that one might mix up one’s left side and right side when one uses a mirror to tie a bow tie. The reflections in the mirror might confuse one easily.

• Pick out two instances that point to the poet’s lack of trust in the dentist.
  The poet finds the dentist dishonest. Even when the dentist declares that his work is over, there remains some sort of additional work to be done. The poet suspects that the dentist’s coating-amalgam is a similar substance used for putting a shine on the horse’ hoof.

• What does the poet hope when he walks out of the dentist’s clinic?

While walking out of the dentist’s clinic, the poet hopes that he will not have to return to the dentist again. But he knows that he has to do it again and again to keep his teeth in good condition. It is an evil circle. He hates it but can’t avoid it.

• Monce: The word monce has a meaning of, “good, excellent,” etc. But it does not fit here. It here means three months. Ogden Nash has a habit of coining such words both for humour and for rhyming effect.

22. What does the poet refer to as the vicious circle?

Why does he think so?

One goes to the dentist with a sincere prayer and hope that he will be able to keep away from a dentist. His hope is to keep his teeth fit, so that he can keep away from a dentist. Ironically, he has to go to the dentist all the time to keep it in good condition.