Poem Kindly Unhitch That Star, Buddy - Analysis

Kindly Unhitch That Star, Buddy

Analysis

Kindly Unhitch That Star, Buddy is a poem by Ogden Nash describing the foolishness of people and their relentless search for success. Nash uses a variety of literary techniques to write the satirical poem, and they effectively illustrate the ways in which many people are in far over their heads in the world, and just need to slow down. The poem is written from the first person, which enables Nash to have a all-seeing perspective. Nash comes off as being very high, and considers himself to be much more worldly and experienced than all those whom he is addressing with his poem on the follies of success. Using strong denotative words, Nash is able to efficiently draw a picture desribing his view of the general population.

In the poem, Nash uses very long lines, with large run-on sentances. At the point where the lines become the longest, Nash is describing the antics of the success seekers and concluding his view on their journeys.

Nash Metropolitan

Nash's House / New Place - Stratford Upon Avon

Nash

The sentances serve the purpose of showing the reader how awkward and difficult it is to read it, and relates it to the seekers' journeys. They long lines also force the reader to slow down and take a break half way through it just to catch their breath. This helps to relate to the fact that the success seekers are fighting an overall losing battle, and so the lines describing it at almost impossible to read on one breath aswell.

In the second last line, Nash repeats the word "contemptuous" a number of times. The word "contemptuous" has a strong negative conotation, and due too this, a negative tone is cast upon the seekers' journies for success. Nash also coins several new words, "bailiffim", "sheriffim", "brunettance", and "blondance". These...