"There is an eagle in me that wants to soar, and there is a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud."

— Carl Sandburg

"It looks like a miniature hippopotamus with badly-fitting panty hose all over."

— Roger Caras, commenting on the Chinese Shar-pei

Behold the hippopotamus!
We laugh at how he looks to us,
And yet in moments dank and grim,
I wonder how we look to him.
Peace, peace, thou hippopotamus!
We really look all right to us,
As you no doubt delight the eye
Of other hippopotami.

— Ogden Nash, "The Hippopotamus"

I had a hippopotamus: I kept him in a shed
And fed him upon vitamins and vegetable bread...
He frolicked with the Rector in a dozen friendly tussles,
Who could not but remark upon his hippopotamuscles.

— Patrick Barrington

Some think the
Noble hippopotamus
A somewhat
Pointless rhinoceros

— Patrick Winstanley, Peculiar Poetry