Life, 1908-12-24 · page 15 of 20
Life — December 24, 1908 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes a book called *Padded Poets*—a collection of English and American poetry selections bound in decorative leather. The satire mocks the inclusion of certain poets deemed unworthy of "first ranks," now reduced to "39 cents" valuation. The humor targets specific poets listed as "padded" (inflated in reputation): *Evangeline* and *Hiawatha* by Longfellow receive particular ridicule. The author questions how Hiawatha—referenced oddly as having a "football career at Carlisle"—qualifies as serious verse. Byron and Mrs. Browning are also mentioned as exposed frauds. The lower sections contain unrelated comic vignettes about theater ambition and child-rearing, typical of Life magazine's miscellaneous humor format. The overall point: publishers were profiting by repackaging mediocre poetry in fancy bindings for unsuspecting readers.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Whoa, Pegasus! From an advertise! Si PADDED PO! Publishers’ Price Bouxp 1n EMBOSSED Leatuer, Fut Gitr E AND Boxen. C includ- ing all the — Panoen nprising 16 title: popular English and American Poets Mrs. Browning, Bryant, Jean Ingelow, Lucile, Milton, Moore, Byron, Carey Courtship of Miles Poe Standish, Procter, Evangeline, Rubaiyat, Hiawatha, Scott Holmes, RUTH will out! thentic list of the Padded Poets. bright lexicon of fame which Fate for the fin must henceforth cling to the names enumerated. That it should include popular English and American poets” cause for interna surprise. Who, for instance, would taking output of Mr. Rubaiyat, At last we have an In the reserves nal lamentation as well as have thought to find Lucile stigmatized as a padded poet, or who, knowing the meager and pains- (au would not feel “A MAN’S A MAN FoR A’ THAT ’” a thrill of astonishment to find him weighed and found padded. In regard to Evangeline, we confess to have had no favorable opportunity of informing ourselves, but surely Mr. Hiawatha can- not be classed as a padded poet unless we revert to the days of his football ca- reer at Carlisle. Longfellow, under a thin veneer of anon: his name protected from the searching critic who, nevertheless, relentlessly exposes Byron and Mrs. Browning. What Galahad of pure verse—now that Coogler of the Carolinas is no more—will arise to ex- in vulgar parlance, knock whose purgate and, the stuffing out of these poets padding has reduced them from the first ranks of $1.s0 verse to the plebeian though seductive valuation of 39 cents? R. H.R. 1 sifting of genius, this bar sinister here il the a PUT MEIN STOCKING (iter) at length in its true lig LIMSON boys practice on him, a dare to tell his father and x Stage-Struck TAGE-STRUCK! The -bu and men! (Pray, re: False friends they egg him on, The of gods ler, do zods they egg him « Lucky Little Ones O* y. in the Elysian Fiel and the children who! caused the bears to eat you think you were rather hai considering that you really were bald, you know?" chirped t tle folks But the stern old prophet only wave them asid Be th t send teddybears 1 children ht, congra’ selves. A Human Training School What do you mean t that little boy in the n terrible whipping Wie: He You see, he's a Christian Scientist didn’t even know it, papa All the dd he doesn’t ther, even comicbooks.com