Life, 1922-01-12 · page 3 of 34
Life — January 12, 1922 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Life* magazine features a poem titled "Fragment" by Dorothy Parker about love's transience and futility. Parker questions why we cling to love when it inevitably fades, comparing passion to "a drop of April rain" that blooms briefly before disappearing. The accompanying illustration depicts a domestic scene: a woman packing a suitcase while a young boy plays with toys (a tricycle and toy train) on the floor. The caption reads: "Some of the essentials Willie wants to take on that week-end visit to Gran'ma." The cartoon's humor lies in the contrast between Parker's melancholic poem about love's impermanence and the mundane, domestic reality of a child's packing dilemma—highlighting life's ordinary complications that persist regardless of romantic ideals.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Life 2% Fragment Ww should we set these hearts of ours above It is the quest that thrills, and not the gain, The rest, and cramp them in possession’s clutch? The mad pursuit, and not the cornering: Poor things, we gasp and strain to capture love, Love caught is but a drop of April rain, And in our hands, it powders at our touch. But bloom upon the moth’s translucent wing. We turn the fragrant pages of the past, Why should you dare to hope that you and I Mournful with scent of passion’s faded flow’rs, Could make love's fitful flash a lasting flame? On every one we read, “Love cannot last,’”— Still, if you think it’s only fair to try— So how could ours? Well, I am game. Dorothy Parker. Some of the essentials Willie wants to take on that week-end visit to Gran’ma. comicbooks.com