A REVIEW OF ' THIS IS GOING TO HURT A LITTLE BIT '

ANALYSIS  CREDITS TO http://www.kiddingtown.com

Short Summary 

The poet rants * at a certain dentist or at all the dentists. He blames these dentists for their unfeeling professionalism. He finds them making patients revisit their clinics for repeated follow-ups. It is the patient who undergoes pain and that pain is unbearable.

*rants - speaks angrily

THEME
This is going to hurt just a little bit is a humorous poem filled with exaggerations, puns and metaphors like Ogden Nash's other poems. It gives a graphic description of the whole experience of sitting on a dental chair which causes both mental and physical pain.The patient has no reason to believe as to how a dentist will not get messed up due to lateral inversion while using mirror to cure the dental problems .
The poet feels sitting on a dental chair is the worst experience one can have in his life. Sitting in that position deprives one of his dignity. He compares a dentist with a female bear, ursa because while treating the patient the dentist suffocates him in a similar manner as a bear suffocates its prey. 


COMMENTS

The poet begins with his dislike for being at a dentist’s. He hopes not to return to the dentist but he has to. For him a dentist’s torture is dental – both physical and mental. For one reason, one cannot be self possessed (calm) while lying down on a dentist’s chair. It is one of the most unfortunate thing to visit a dentist, especially with a teeth filling or drilling. It pains so much that one digs his finger-nails into his palm due to the pain caused by the dentist. In life we have a few awkward positions – sitting in the loo, for example – and sitting/lying down on a dentist’s chair also is an awkward position. 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. The patient wants to get his teeth polished by the dentist but he experiences excruciating pain as if his teeth and mouth got demolished. The poet fears to be with a dentist chiefly because the latter examines and pulls the teeth with the help of a tiny mirror. Ursa is the Latin word for bear. Both the dentist and a bear have the nature to dig into – while the dentist digs the mouth for repair, the bear uses its forearms and pointed mouth to eat its preys. But all the same how can you be sure when he takes his crowbar In one hand and mirror in the other he won’t get mixed up, The way you do when you try to tie a bow tie with the aid of a mirror, And forget that left is right and vice versa? And then at last he says, “that will be all,” but it isn’t because He then coats your mouth from cellar to roof With something that I suspect is generally used to put a shine on a horse’s hoof. And you totter to your feet and think. Well it’s all over now and afterall it was only this once. And he says come back in three monce. And this, O Fate, is I think the most vicious circle that thou ever sentest, That Man has to go continually to the dentist to keep his teeth in good condition When the chief reason he wants his teeth in good condition is so That he won’t have to go to the dentist.
 Analysis – 
part 1 
 One thing I like less than most things is Sitting in a dentist chair with my mouth wide open. And that I will never have to do it again is A hope that I am against hope hopen.
Pick out an instance from the poem that already makes it an interesting poem.

 A painkiller poem written under extreme pain, This is Going to Hurt Just a Little Bit is a superb piece of work that makes the reader laugh at every turn. The expression, I am against hope hopen, though the poet has misused his poetic license, makes us wonder what it is in the first instance and makes us laugh in the next. “Hope hopen.”

What’s your stand about this poetic license?

 Though the poet has violated the ordinary rights under poetic license, ‘hope hopen’ makes admirable sense for its beauty and for its rhyming with the previous ‘open.’ What does the poet hate more than most things? The poet hates sitting in a dentist’s chair. Because some tortures are physical and some are mental, But the one that is both is dental. It is hard to be self-possessed With your jaw digging into your chest.


What is the beauty of the first and second lines?


 The poet’s choice of words is one that deserves extra attention and appreciation. Here, with physical and mental, he fits the word dental which is both perfectly conveying and amusing.

What is your opinion about dental pain?
 Dental pain is unbearable, in most cases. It is one of the most unfortunate thing to visit a dentist, especially with a teeth filling or drilling.

 How is dental torture unique?

 Dental torture is unique because while other pains are either physical or mental, dental pain brings both the pains in one go.

 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 as here is no time to think of oneself, of past and future. It is a time to measure one’s pain with jaw digging into chest.​