Life, 1913-06-12 · page 7 of 44
Life — June 12, 1913 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page presents "A Hoodooed Sonnet" by Carolyn Wells—a playful poem about the difficulty of writing sonnets while following strict poetic rules. The humorous illustration below depicts a motorcycle accident, with two people in a sidecar that has crashed on a hillside. The cartoon's caption reads: "Good heavens, Mary! Why didn't you put on the brake when I told you to?" / "Because." The joke combines the sonnet's theme about constraints and rules with the illustration's ironic situation: the driver gave explicit instructions ("put on the brake"), yet the passenger did the opposite. The single-word answer "Because" humorously suggests no logical reason exists—pure stubbornness or inexplicable human behavior. The "hoodoo" (bad luck) referenced in the title connects to this consequence of not following rules.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A Hoodooed Sonnet ‘© write a sonnet isn’t very hard, And one must be a fairly practised bard, Albeit one must follow rigid rules Able with some small skill to use his tools Laid down by certain wise and learned schools, To polish and to set his verbal jewels, And speak, like Mr. Shakespeare, by the card And to minutest details have regard And one may claim a chaplet, laurel-leaved, Who paints the lily and pure gold refines; Though 'tis a feat that’s scarce to be believed, Yet, for this Hoodoo Number I've achieved A sonnet that contains but thirteen lines! Carolyn Wells ” comicbooks.com