You can divide al the terms in the numerator by 4 and rewrite as:
[tex]\frac12x^4 + x - \frac54 [/tex]
Then you could factor out an x and write:
[tex]x(\frac12x^3 + 1) - \frac54[/tex]
Not sure if this is any simpler. I'd go for the top one as the cleanest form.
