Life — May 29, 1913 — page 7: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Wild Wanderings" - Analysis This page features a poem by Francis B. Keene titled "Wild Wanderings" that appears to be **satirical verse about Maine geography and Native American place names**. The poem addresses a "Lady of the Aroostook" and catalogs Maine locations—Squapawpan, Mattawamkeag, Passamekeag, Kennebec—with humorously unpronounceable Indigenous names. The text playfully suggests these names are obstacles to civilization ("No civilization deterrent / Shall keep us from Carratunk town"). The accompanying illustration depicts what appears to be **a fortune teller or soothsayer scene**, likely suggesting the absurdity of trying to navigate or predict outcomes in a landscape with such bewildering place names. The satire mocks both the difficulty of Maine's Native American nomenclature and, implicitly, the challenge of settling or understanding such territories.