[This Is Going to Hurt Just a Little Bit — Line-by-Line Analysis
Ogden Nash | XII English
Ogden Nash presents a dental visit through the eyes of a nervous speaker. His exaggerated descriptions, unexpected comparisons and playful language turn discomfort into comedy.
🔹 1. “One thing I like less than most things…”
The speaker says that sitting in a dentist’s chair with his mouth wide open is one of his least favourite experiences. The conversational opening introduces his dislike of dental treatment.
🔹 2. “And that I will never have to do it again…”
He desperately hopes that he will never have to repeat the experience. However, he realises that this hope may not come true. The playful word “hopen” rhymes with “open” and establishes the humorous style.
🔹 3. “Because some tortures are physical…”
Some kinds of suffering affect the body, while others affect the mind. The speaker introduces this distinction to explain why he finds dental treatment especially unpleasant.
🔹 4. “But the one that is both is dental.”
According to the speaker, dental treatment combines bodily discomfort with mental fear. The rhyme between “mental” and “dental” makes his dramatic complaint amusing.
🔹 5. “It is hard to be self-possessed…”
The speaker finds it difficult to remain calm and in control of himself. Self-possessed means calm and confident, especially in an uncomfortable situation.
🔹 6. “With your jaw digging into your chest.”
He exaggerates the awkward position of his lowered jaw. The description suggests discomfort and a loss of dignity while sitting with his mouth open.
🔹 7. “So hard to retain your calm…”
He repeats the difficulty of staying calm. This repetition emphasises how strongly the experience affects him.
🔹 8. “When your fingernails are making serious alterations…”
The speaker presses his fingernails into his palms because he is nervous. He jokingly suggests that this pressure changes the lines associated with life and love on his palms. The exaggeration makes his anxiety humorous.
🔹 9. “So hard to give your usual effect of cheery benignity…”
He cannot maintain his normal cheerful and pleasant appearance. “Cheery benignity” suggests a cheerful, kindly manner.
🔹 10. “When you know your position…”
The speaker considers his position in the dental chair extremely undignified. His open mouth and helpless posture prevent him from appearing composed. Calling it one of life’s least dignified positions is an exaggeration.
🔹 11. “And your mouth is like a section of road…”
The speaker compares his mouth to a road undergoing repairs. This is a simile, as it uses “like” to compare two different things.
🔹 12. “And it is all cluttered up with stone crushers…”
The dental instruments seem like heavy road-building machines. Stone crushers, concrete mixers, drills and steamrollers suggest noise, pressure and force. These imagined machines exaggerate his discomfort.
🔹 13. “Oh, some people are unfortunate enough…”
The speaker refers to the painful punishment of being suspended by the thumbs. This extreme comparison shows how dramatically he views his experience.
🔹 14. “And others have things done to their gums…”
He places dental treatment beside the punishment mentioned earlier, as though both were comparable forms of suffering. The rhyme between “thumbs” and “gums” adds humour.
🔹 15. “And your teeth are supposed to be being polished…”
The purpose of the treatment is to clean and polish his teeth. This prepares us for the contrast between what the dentist is doing and what the speaker imagines.
🔹 16. “But you have reason to believe they are being demolished.”
He feels as though his teeth are being destroyed rather than polished. The rhyme between “polished” and “demolished” highlights this exaggerated contrast.
🔹 17. “And the circumstance that adds most to your terror…”
The speaker introduces another reason for his fear. His dramatic use of “terror” makes an ordinary part of dental treatment sound alarming.
🔹 18. “Is that it’s all done with a mirror…”
The dentist’s use of a small mirror makes him more anxious. Instead of seeing it as a useful instrument, he imagines that it could cause confusion.
🔹 19. “Because the dentist may be a bear…”
The comparison presents the dentist as potentially frightening or rough. The speaker then makes a humorous comment about “ursa”, the Latin word for a female bear. This unexpected language joke interrupts his complaint.
🔹 20. “But all the same how can you be sure…”
The speaker imagines the dentist holding a crowbar rather than an ordinary dental instrument. This exaggeration makes the dentist’s work appear much more forceful.
🔹 21. “…the way you do when you try to tie a bow tie…”
He compares the dentist’s work with the difficulty of tying a bow tie while looking in a mirror. A familiar everyday problem becomes the basis for his exaggerated worry.
🔹 22. “…and forget that left is right and vice versa?”
He fears that the dentist might confuse directions while using the mirror. Vice versa means “the other way round”. This expresses the speaker’s nervous imagination; the dentist does not actually make such a mistake.
🔹 23. “And then at last he says That will be all…”
The dentist’s announcement seems to promise that the treatment has ended. However, another step follows, so the speaker’s relief comes too soon.
🔹 24. “…he then coats your mouth from cellar to roof…”
The dentist applies a substance inside his mouth. The speaker describes the mouth as a building with a cellar and roof. This metaphor suggests that the substance covers the whole interior.
🔹 25. “With something that I suspect…”
He jokingly imagines that the substance is used to make a horse’s hoof shine. The unexpected comparison makes the final stage of treatment sound absurd and unpleasant.
🔹 26. “And you totter to your feet…”
He gets up unsteadily from the chair. Totter means to stand or walk in an unsteady way. The word continues his dramatic account.
🔹 27. “…Well it’s all over now…”
The speaker feels relieved and comforts himself with the thought that the experience is finished. He hopes it was something he had to endure only once.
🔹 28. “And he says come back in three monce.”
The dentist asks him to return in three months, destroying his hope of avoiding another visit. “Monce” is a deliberately altered spelling of “months” that rhymes with “once”.
🔹 29. “And this, O Fate…”
The speaker dramatically addresses Fate as though it were responsible for his problem. This is apostrophe, a direct address to an absent person, an abstract idea or a non-human thing.
🔹 30. “…the most vicious circle…”
He describes his situation as a repeating cycle from which he cannot escape. His grand, old-fashioned language makes an ordinary dental appointment sound like a terrible destiny.
🔹 31. “…Man has to go continually to the dentist…”
People must visit the dentist to keep their teeth in good condition. The speaker recognises the need for these visits even though he dislikes them.
🔹 32. “…so that he won’t have to go to the dentist.”
The ending reveals the central contradiction: he wants healthy teeth mainly to avoid dental visits, yet maintaining them requires further visits. This humorous irony brings the poem to a memorable close.]
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