Life — November 9, 1916 — page 3: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "The Superstitious Ghost" by Arthur Guiterman This satirical poem mocks the contradiction between ghosts' supposed existence and scientific rationalism. The ghost narrator claims to be "quiet" and "inoffensive," yet admits to being "rather fearful" and dreading human beings. The satire targets believers in spiritualism (referenced through "Willy Spook, the Humanist") who claimed to have encountered ghosts, contradicting scientific consensus that ghosts don't exist. The poem ridicules these spiritualists for describing ghosts as having physical forms—"solid, not diaphanous, / With arm! and legs! and faces!!!"—while simultaneously claiming ghosts are supernatural beings. The accompanying sketch shows a woman and child encountering a ghostly figure, visualizing the poem's ironic premise: a ghost anxious about meeting humans, the very beings it supposedly haunts.