Life, 1922-07-06 · page 7 of 36
Life — July 6, 1922 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page presents four illustrated literary quotations in an art nouveau/decorative style. Each pairs a famous American poem with a French-influenced drawing: 1. **"Thanatopsis"** (William Cullen Bryant) — shows a reclining woman communing with nature 2. **"Maud Muller"** (John Greenleaf Whittier) — depicts a woman raking hay in a pastoral scene 3. **"Excelsior"** (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) — shows a man in evening dress at a doorway 4. **"The Heritage"** (James Russell Lowell) — illustrates two figures at a dining table with wine The satire appears to mock the fashionable adoption of French artistic aesthetics in American culture. By dressing quintessentially American romantic poetry in elaborate, decorative French illustration style, the page humorously comments on American cultural pretension and the era's Francophilia among educated classes.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Thanatopsis To him who in the love of Nature holds Communion with her visi- ble forms,—etc. William Cullen Bryant. Excelsior The shades of night were falling fast,—etc. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Maud Muller Maud Muller, on a summer's day, Raked the meadow sweet with hay,—etc. John Greenleaf Whittier. The Heritage The rich man’s son inherits lands, And piles of brick and stone, and gold, And he inherits soft white hands,—ete. James Russell Lowell. American Poets Illustrated in the French Manner comicbooks.com