‘The Height of the Ridiculous’ is a humorous poem by the American poet Oliver Wendell Holmes. Its theme is the power of humour. The poet, usually a sober man, once wrote some lines in a merry mood that were so funny that he himself laughed. He sent them to the printer through his huge servant. As the servant read line after line, his grin grew broad, he chuckled, then roared, his waistband split, five buttons burst off and he tumbled in a fit. The poet watched over him for ten days and nights and has never since dared to write as funny as he can.
The poem has seven stanzas of four lines each with the rhyme scheme abcb. It uses hyperbole, alliteration (‘grin grew’), repetition (‘so queer, so very queer’), onomatopoeia (‘roar’, ‘chuckling’), tautology and a transferred epithet (‘sleepless eye’). The language is simple and the narrative style keeps us amused. I like the poem because its exaggeration is delightful and it makes the reader laugh.