Life, 1883-05-03 · page 10 of 16
Life — May 3, 1883 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "While Cigarettes to Ashes Turn" This satirical poem mocks romantic Victorian sentimentality. A young woman defies her parents' disapproval of a suitor by communicating with him across the darkness—using cigarette glows as a coded love language ("Each pulse of light a word we know"). The joke targets both the absurdity of parental prohibition and the overwrought, dramatic way young people romanticize forbidden love. The cigarette becomes a symbol of youthful rebellion and secret romance, with the poem's elaborate descriptions of smoke, ember, and glow treating a trivial act as profound tragedy. The cartoon panel shows parents angrily forbidding the man to call again—he "must not call" and "shall not call"—while the willful daughter declares she'll love him "anyway," establishing the setup for the poem's defiant conclusion.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
212 says Ma. IT. At twilight, in his room, alone, His careless feet inertly thrown Across a chair, my fancy can But worship this most worthless man ! I dream what joy it is to set His slow lips round a cigarette, With idle-humored whiff and puff— Ah! this is innocent enough ! To mark the slender fingers raise, ‘The waxen match’s dainty blaze, Whose chastened light an instant glows On drooping lids and arching nose, Then, in the sudden gloom, instead, A tiny ember, dim and red, Blooms languidly to ripeness, then Fades slowly, and grows ripe again ! III. I lean back, in my own boudoir— - The door is fast, the sash ajar ; And, in the dark, I smiling stare At one wide window over there, Where some one, smoking, pinks the gloom— ‘The darling darkness of his room ! DOLEE-- WHILE CIGARETTES TO ASHES TURN, I, E_ smokes —and that’s enough !” “ And cigarettes, at that!’ says Pa. “He must not call again !" says she. “He shall not call again !”” says he. They both. glare at + me as before— Then quit the room and bang the door, While I, their will- ful daughter, say, I guess I'll him, anyway I push my shutters wider yet, And lo! I light a cigarette ; And gleam for gleam, and glow for glow, Each pulse of light a word we know, We talk of love that still will burn While cigarettes to ashes turn. J. W. Rivew. BOOKISHNESS. 4 Heaven's “ Dictionary of Dates" isa sort of en- cyclopedia preserving the Fruits of History. “Srray Pears” is the name of the latest Imported English novel which is cast before American swine. “FancHETTE"” is the latest Round Robin novel but it is as erratic and as young-maidish, and as unex- pected as if it had been written by “ Planchette.” Tue latest French novel is. M. Ludovic Halévy's “Criquette.” But it is about a French girl and not about an Imported English game, as'the title suggests. A new book of dramatic ‘criticism has for its title “ Nights at the Play,” so it’probably contains a review of “Rouge et Noir,” and “ Thirty Years of a Gam- bler’s Life.” Mr. E. A. Freeman has been guilty of “ Some Im- pressions of the United States,” from which we incline to the opinion that this Mr. Freeman is probably an Englishman. Tue latest number of Dr. McCosh’s “ Philosophic Series” is called “Princeton; what it Can Do and what it Cannot Do.” It deals with the question of secret societies in colleges. In the May AV/antic there is a paper by Mr. W. D. Howells called “ Niagara Revisited, Twelve Years after their Wedding Journey.” The wedded couple having been able, apparently by the exercise of the strictest economy, to save up in that time enough money to propitiate the local hackman. . | | | | | comicbooks.com