Life — August 14, 1924 — page 5: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Pipe Dreams or A Bachelor's Reverie" This is a poem by Marc Connelly accompanying a satirical illustration. A man sits by a fireplace smoking a pipe, and the smoke forms a large pipe-shaped bubble containing six female heads—representing women from his past or imagination. The poem is nostalgic, romantic satire: the bachelor recalls various women (Bessie, Kate, Flosey, Carrie, Jenny, Tess, and Cassie) as idealized memories. However, the final lines mock his reverie—his pipe is "out" and the "faces fade," suggesting these romantic visions are merely fleeting fantasies. He resignedly bids them goodnight while sitting alone by the fire. The joke is on the bachelor's self-delusion: his romantic memories are literally just smoke.