Poetry · Chapter
The Hippopotamus explained
This poem contrasts the earthly, flesh-and-blood hippopotamus with the institutional True Church, ultimately depicting the hippopotamus's salvation and ascension to heaven while the Church remains mired in worldly corruption.
What happens
This poem contrasts the earthly, flesh-and-blood hippopotamus with the institutional True Church, ultimately depicting the hippopotamus's salvation and ascension to heaven while the Church remains mired in worldly corruption.
Themes in this chapter
Spiritual Crisis and Desolation
The poem contrasts the hippopotamus's eventual salvation with the True Church's stagnation, highlighting a crisis of faith in institutional religion.
Fragmentation and Modernity
The juxtaposition of the earthly hippopotamus and the Church's material concerns reflects the fragmentation of spiritual and worldly values in modern society.
Characters to notice
- Unknown Narrator
The speaker observes the hippopotamus and the Church, describing their contrasting fates.
Key passages
“The broad-backed hippopotamus / Rests on his belly in the mud; / Although he seems so firm to us / He is merely flesh and blood.”
The large hippopotamus lies in the mud, appearing solid but being only mortal flesh.
Introduces the hippopotamus as a symbol of earthly, frail existence.
“While the True Church can never fail / For it is based upon a rock.”
The true Church is unshakeable because it is founded on a solid foundation.
Contrasts the Church's supposed permanence with the hippopotamus's vulnerability.
“I saw the ’potamus take wing / Ascending from the damp savannas, / And quiring angels round him sing / The praise of God, in loud hosannas.”
I witnessed the hippopotamus fly up from the wet grasslands, surrounded by angels singing praises to God.
Describes the hippopotamus's miraculous ascension and salvation.
“While the True Church remains below / Wrapt in the old miasmal mist.”
Meanwhile, the true Church stays on earth, enveloped in a stagnant, corrupting fog.
Ends with the Church left behind in a state of decay, contrasting with the hippopotamus's heavenly reward.