Life, 1898-08-18 · page 5 of 20
Life — August 18, 1898 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "Angels' Toys" - Analysis This is a whimsical poem by Oliver Herford, not political satire. The illustrated piece imagines what angels do to pass eternity—they transform human vices into toys for amusement. The poem's conceit is that celestial beings reshape earthly character flaws (pride, power, rank-consciousness, gossip, foolishness) into playthings: toy balloons, shuttlecocks, and rattles. The humor lies in this theological joke—that human failings are so trivial from heaven's perspective that angels treat them as children's diversions. The elaborate border of cherubs and angelic figures is decorative rather than satirical. This appears to be a light, philosophical piece reflecting on human nature's insignificance, rendered in Herford's characteristic whimsical style.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Angels’ Toys. ’VE often wondered—haven't you?— I What all the little angels do To while eternity away, When grown-up angels sing and play Upon their harps with golden strings, And lutes and violas and things, What do they do? What do they p'ay To while eternity away? After much ponder! Perhaps an answor I have found— I givo it you for what it's worth, Tho people now upon this earth, Who neither quite deserve to go Above hereafter, nor below— ‘Tho prig, ths poser, and tho crank ; ‘Tho snob, who thinks of nauzht but rank; Tho gossip and tho fool—in short, All nuisances of every sort— Will chango into amusing toys For little angel girls and boys. Tho braggart will confer a boon By changing to a toy balloon ; Tho snob tuft-bunter and the boro To shuttlecock and battledore Will turn; tho highfalutin wights Tho angol boys will fly as kites; Tho gossip thon will couse his prattlo, And bo an angel baby's rattle; Tho prig—but you have got me thoro, Whothor in heaven, or olsowhoro, ‘Tis quite impossible to sco What kind of use tho prig can be; By what inscrutable design, Or by what accident divine, Or what impenetrable jest Ho was ovolved, can no’or be guessed, Oliver Herford,