Life, 1900-05-10 · page 9 of 20
Life — May 10, 1900 — page 9: what you’re looking at
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# "To a Poet" by Carolyn Wells This satirical poem mocks the tired clichés of poetic convention. The speaker, personified as Spring descending to Earth, complains that poets endlessly celebrate her arrival with worn-out praise—the same "Hall!" exclamation repeated annually. The poem references classical literary figures (Shakespeare, Milton, Chaucer, Spenser, Omar Khayyam, Aristotle) to illustrate how poets blindly imitate historical precedents. The speaker is exhausted by this predictable adulation and begs to be spared "the old, old story." The accompanying illustrations show Spring arriving and poets at work, visualizing the poem's critique of uninspired, derivative verse. Wells's satire targets poets who rely on worn literary traditions rather than original expression—a common early-20th-century criticism of Romantic and Victorian poetry.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ES, Poot, I am coming down to carth To spend tho merry months of blos- som time; But don’t break out in pans of glad mirth Expressed in hackneyed rhyme, For once, dear Poet, won't you kindly skip Your ode of welcome? It is such a bore! Tam no chicken—and I’vo made tho trip Six thousand times or more, And as I flutter carthward every year, You must admit that it grows rather stalo When I arrivo, repeatedly to hear That samo old annual “ Hail 1!" ‘Time was when I onjoyed the pocts’ praiso— Will Shakespearo’s song, or Mr. Milton's hymn; Or oven certain little twittering lays By Indios quaint and prim, Chaucer and Spenser filed me with delight, And how I loved to hear Bob Herrick W009} Old Omar seemed to think I was all right— And Aristotlo too. But Iam tired of all this famo and glory; Oh, Poets, leave Parnassian heights un- sealed. This time lot me be spared the old, old story, And come for onco unbatled ! Carolyn Wells,