Life, 1921-06-02 · page 30 of 44
Life — June 2, 1921 — page 30: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes the commercialization of art and poetry. The main text mocks how advertising has enlisted visual artists, then sarcastically suggests poetry should follow—imagining absurd results like "Lyrics to Lingerie" and "Ballades to Bonnets." It notes a department store has already attempted this but lacked courage to fully commit to free verse formatting. **"The Cheese Bunny"** is a whimsical illustrated limerick about a Welsh rabbit (rabbit breed) that haunts his toast, preventing anyone from eating it—a mild, silly joke. The **Statistics** section is pure satirical humor: absurdist "facts" like "twelve thousand English poets writing verses," cauliflower cars in Madison Square Garden, and the Henry Ford/Jewish support joke (Ford was famously antisemitic, making the "100% won't support" claim pointed). **"Stymied"** shows a golfer frustrated his record attempt is ruined—a sports reference joke. Overall, the page mocks commercial culture's invasion of high art while celebrating advertising's ridiculous overreach.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Literature and Art HERE was held in New York toward the end of the winter an exhilarating exhibition of art—pictorial art—cnlisted in the cause of advertising. It made plain to all and sundry that the artful adver- tiser has been able to call to his aid an army of designing persons. And if art— pictorial art—is to be enlisted in the sery- ice of “the New World's new fiend, publicity,” as Lowell aptly called it, t is no reason why poetry—divine poetry— should not yield to the same tempta- tion. We may expect soon to see the advertising columns illuminated — with Lyrics to Lingerie, Ballades to Bonnets, Pantoums to Pantalettes, Rondeaus to Rid- ing Habits. And perhaps the emitters of Free Verse will fall into line, in their turn, and astonish us with their capricious convolutions, Indeed, they have done so already, if one may judge by one paragraph in one advertisement of one department store. But the inspired lyrist, filled with divine cestacy, has not had the full courage of her (or is it his?) convictions. (or THE CHEESE BUNNY is it he?) has not dared to arrange her lines in the typographic form affected by the Free Versifiers. It seems a shame not YAMES 1MOWEBMWERY FLAG There once was a fierce Welsh Rabbit Who had a remarkable habit; He'd crouch on his toast And moan like a ghost— So no one dast come up and grab it! to bestow upon this delectable illustration of the ultimate possibilities of Free Verse, the form which will bring out all its beauties. Even in its prosaic presentation — it is instinct with grace. And how much (Continued on page 811) Statistics Especially Compiled by Live's Own Lightning Calculator. HE days of the week, laid end to end, reach from Monday morning to Sun- day night. The number of Jews who would not support Henry Ford for President is one hundred per cent., and increases at the rate of six per cent. per annum. ee During the fiscal year ending May 1, 1921, one hundred bushels of cauliflower cars were produced in Madison Square Garden. eee Twelve thousand English poets are now writing 12,560,085 verses to read on the American lyceum circuit in the course of the next season. eee One hundred and thirty-six million feet of movie film have been devoted since January 1, 1921, to the general proposition that Love will Find a Way. STYMIED “cee! DIS WILL RAISE 'ELL WIT MY COAST-TO-COAST RECORD.” comicbooks.com