Life — January 18, 1906 — page 9: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "A Song of Modern Poets" This satirical poem by Charles Hanson Towne mocks prolific early 20th-century writers through caricature. The illustration shows winged figures of various authors at their desks, depicted as frantically productive. The poem ridicules specific named writers—Clinton Scollard, Miss Wells, Wallace Irwin, John Kendrick Bangs, and Theodosia Garrison—for churning out excessive verse and stories at unsustainable rates. The satire suggests these poets produce quantity over quality, with references to their work appearing everywhere ("Where would the magazines be?"). The imagery of angel wings combined with industrious desk work humorously frames contemporary literary output as both heavenly and relentless factory production. The overall joke: these writers are so prolific they're practically superhuman—and possibly ridiculous for it.