Very Like a Whale
One thing that literature would be greatly the better for
Would be a more restricted employment by the authors of simile and
metaphor.
Authors of all races, be they Greeks, Romans, Teutons or Celts,
Can't seem just to say that anything is the thing it is but have to
go out of their way to say that it is like something else.
What does it mean when we are told
That that Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold?
In the first place, George Gordon Byron had enough experience
To know that it probably wasn't just one Assyrian, it was a lot of
Assyrians.
However, as too many arguments are apt to induce apoplexy and
thus hinder longevity.
We'll let it pass as one Assyrian for the sake of brevity.
Now then, this particular Assyrian, the one whose cohorts were
gleaming in purple and gold,
Just what does the poet mean when he says he came down like a
wold on the fold?
In heaven and earth more than is dreamed of in our philosophy
there are great many things.
But I don't imagine that among them there is a wolf with purple
and gold cohorts or purple and gold anythings.
No, no, Lord Byron, before I'll believe that this Assyrian was
actually like a wolf I must have some kind of proof;
Did he run on all fours and did he have a hairy tail and a big red
mouth and big white teeth and did he say Woof Woof?
Frankly I think it is very unlikely, and all you were entitled to say,
at the very most,
Was that the Assyrian cohorts came down like a lot of Assyrian
cohorts about to destroy the Hebrew host.
But that wasn't fancy enough for Lord Byron, oh dear me no, he
had to invent a lot of figures of speech and then interpolate them,
With the result that whenever you mention Old Testament soldiers
to people they say Oh yes, they're the ones that a lot of
wolves dressed up in gold and purple ate them.
That's the kind of thing that's being done all the time by poets,
from Homer to Tennyson;
They're always comparing ladies to lilies and veal to venison,
And they always say things like that the snow is a white blanket
after a winter storm.
Oh it is, is it, all right then, you sleep under a six-inch blanket of
snow and I'll sleep under a half-inch blanket of unpoetical
blanket material and we'll see which one keeps warm,
And after that maybe you'll begin to comprehend dimly
What I mean by too much metaphor and simile.
Literary Analysis
This literary analysis was generated with AI and may contain interpretive differences. Provide your analysis in the comments section.
Summary
Ogden Nash presents a comic argument against overworked similes and metaphors by turning the poem itself into a running demonstration of the problem. The poem begins as if it were a serious literary complaint, but it quickly becomes a performance piece in which the poet pokes fun at grand poetic language, especially famous comparisons that have been repeated so often they lose force. By revisiting Byron's "Assyrian" and pushing the logic of comparison to absurd extremes, Nash exposes how figurative language can become inflated, misleading, or just plain ridiculous when it is used too automatically.
The poem's movement is part lecture, part parody, part courtroom cross-examination. The voice sounds opinionated and witty, but it also keeps undercutting itself with exaggeration, as though Nash knows that he is using the very device he claims to distrust. That tension gives the poem its energy: he is not rejecting poetry, but arguing for sharper, more exact language and for figurative speech that earns its effect. The final snow-and-blanket example lands the point in bluntly practical terms, reminding readers that a metaphor can sound pretty while saying very little about actual experience.
Theme
- Critique of poetic excess - Nash targets the habit of piling on similes and metaphors, suggesting that decorative comparison can weaken rather than strengthen expression.
- Precision over ornament - The poem argues that language should say what it means clearly instead of hiding behind elaborate imagery.
- Humor as criticism - Nash uses wit and exaggeration to make his literary complaint entertaining rather than preachy.
- Tension between poetry and plain speech - The poem repeatedly contrasts elevated poetic language with ordinary common sense, asking what gets lost when writers choose fancy comparisons.
- Self-aware irony - Nash criticizes figurative language while performing it, creating a playful contradiction that keeps the poem from becoming merely scolding.
Literary Devices
- Extended satire - The poem satirizes poetic convention across its whole length, treating literary habit as a subject for comic mockery.
- Hyperbole - Nash exaggerates his examples, especially in the absurd image of a wolf in purple and gold, to show how far-fetched comparisons can become.
- Direct address - Speaking to Byron and, more broadly, to poets in general creates an argumentative, conversational tone that makes the critique feel immediate.
- Rhetorical questions - The poem repeatedly asks questions that are not meant to be answered literally, using them to challenge the logic of figurative language.
- Parody - Nash imitates the serious habits of literary criticism while replacing solemnity with comic overstatement.
- Repetition - The repeated focus on comparison, metaphor, and simile reinforces the poem's central complaint and gives the argument a looping, insistently playful rhythm.
- Bathos - The poem drops from lofty literary discussion to everyday practicality, especially in the snow blanket comparison, to puncture poetic pretension.
Symbolism
- The Assyrian - Byron's famous war image symbolizes the kind of elevated historical comparison Nash finds excessive and misleading.
- The wolf - The wolf stands for vivid but overextended figurative language that can become absurd when taken too literally.
- Snow as a blanket - This image symbolizes the gap between poetic prettiness and lived reality, especially the difference between sounding clever and actually being useful.
- Purple and gold - These colors suggest the pomp and grandeur of ornamental poetic language, which Nash treats with skepticism.
Tone
Nash's tone is mischievous, skeptical, and mock-serious, as if he is delivering a lecture while winking at the audience the whole time. The mood for the reader is playful but also a little chastened, because the poem makes ornate language sound both silly and dangerously easy to misuse. Its comic force comes from the sense that Nash is dismantling literary grandeur with the tools of wit and common sense.
Historical Context
Ogden Nash is associated with twentieth-century American light verse, a mode that values brevity, wit, rhyme, and a deliberately casual voice. His poetry often comments on everyday life and on literary habits themselves, using humor to deflate solemnity. This poem fits that tradition by turning a criticism of poetic style into a comic performance.
The poem also belongs to a broader modern awareness that older poetic conventions can feel inflated or overfamiliar to contemporary readers. By joking about famous literary comparisons, Nash joins a long conversation about whether poetry should preserve inherited ornament or favor sharper, more exact expression. The result is a poem that is both a parody of poetic tradition and a defense of clearer language.
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