Life, 1917-11-22 · page 7 of 44
Life — November 22, 1917 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page presents a satirical poem "To Italy" by Katharine Lee Bates, accompanied by an illustration titled "Opening the Message from the Front: 'Have Gained Eight Pounds. Send More Candy.'" The cartoon depicts women and children receiving wartime correspondence, likely from soldiers abroad during World War I (based on the "front" reference). The joke satirizes domestic morale-boosting efforts: while soldiers supposedly fight at war, the comical message about gaining weight from candy reveals the disconnect between romantic notions of warfare and soldiers' actual preoccupations with comfort items like sweets. The bedroom sketches at top spell "LIFE," the magazine's title. The accompanying poem invokes Italian Renaissance art and suffering to contrast with the frivolous candy concern, deepening the satire about wartime sentimentality versus reality.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
To Italy RIGHT ‘valor, smitten by so shrewd a blow, Pity in those sweet eyes of Raphael Drooping thy golden wing like wounded plover, For all Madonnas whose young sons lie What great, grieved faces o'er the battle hover— fi Patriot Mazzini; Fra Angelico, r a far-famed hell Forsaking his own seraphs for thy woe: des to a fantasy and Savonarola, still his country’s lover By scenes no wildest dream could parallel, Despite the flame g for walls to cover Vast agony of thy Venetian plain With such a fresco, Michel Angelo: Katharine Lee Bates. OPENING THE MESSAGE FROM THE FRONT “HAVE GAINED EIGHT POUNDS, SEND MORE CANDY" comicbooks.com