St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-02-16
Verse-MakepS Exercise Their
FOndneSS for Humorous
limitations.
How "Pluribusto" Outsold
the Original Longfellow's
"HiaWatha."
The Descent From the Sub
lime to the Ridiculous
Very Easy.
Scores Of Serious Poems
Fitted to Funny, Airy,
Catchy Lines.

strength of the tree which supports it,
so, too, do the parody and the para
phrase depend upon the strength and
beauty and prominence of the masters
verse they suggestfyely initiate for the
recognition they receive, says the Chi
| cage Herald. The echo in a weakened
measure reverbrates after the sound
thai started it has died away. The par
ody sometimes lives after the original
verse has been forgotten. Much of the
newspaper verse of to-day is parody
airy superStructureS built upon solid
foundations laid by others. Well con-
structed parodies are catchy and at
tractive, their forcefullness depending
largely upon their close imitation in
form OF and wide difference in purpose
from the original lines. The more pre-
cipitoIs the descent from the sublime
to the ridiculous the more startling
the effect. Though some parodies, such
as "P%luribusto." which. is a humorous
version of LongfelloW's ''Hiawatha,"
and which for a season Outsold the orig
inal work, have been published in pre-
tentious volumes, they are usually mere
bubbles thrown upon the passing stream
OF literature. Sometimes they point a
moral or adorn a tale" but oftener
their purpose is to simply awaken a
transient smile and then to be forgot
ten.
1.-The Old Oaken Bucket has been
parodied a great deal, as have also
''Once Upon a Midnight Dreary" and
Beautiful Snow" Shakespeare'S ITO
Be or Not to Be- and Tennyson's Half
a League" have been very much para
phrased. The latter authors Break,
Break, Break has been fitted to scores
of topics. Here are some Of the lines
they have suggested:
Break. break, break,
On the quivering air. high C,
But the much nee ded rest you have caused
me to lose
Can never C ONE back to me.
Brake, brake, brake,
1e brakeman. wherever you be,
But the name of the own you SO umble and
drown
Is ne'er understood by me.
The third is supposed to have been
written by a young lady at a seaside re-
sort. where there were not enough
young men to go round:
Break, break, break,
At the foot of thy crags,~O sea,
But Oh, for the presence of one young man,
To come and make love to me.
There isn't a youth in AM erica, it is
safe to state, but cal give the original
of the following:
The boy stood on the back yard fence,
Whence all but him had fed.
The flames that lit his fathers barn
Shone just above the shed.
The bunch of crackers in his hand,
Two others in his hat;
With piteous accents loud he cried:
Il never thought of that!'
A bunch of crackers to the tail
Of one small dog he'd tied;
III dog in anguish sought the Darn,
And 'mid its ruins died.
The sparks flew wide. and red, and hot,
That lit upon that brat;
They fired the crackers in his han d
And exc those III his hat.
Then came a burst of rafting sound
The boy? Where was he gomez
Ask of the winds that far around
Strewed bits of meat and bone,
And scraps of clothes, and ba lis, and tops,
And nails, and hooks and yarn;
The relics of the dreadful boy
That burned his fathers barn.
w hen Gray wrote his grand ''Elegy''
he did not dream that he would be re-
Sponsible indirectly for many such par
Odies as these:
Full many a gem of purest ray serene
Inc udIh uHldtHOIleu caves OF ocean bear.
And yet the genuine are seldom seen,
Fol most OF them are paste which people
wear.
Full many a joke old as the ancient hills
Within the funny papers we review;
Full many a chestnut dressed in modern
frills
And pafmed off on the world as something
new.
Brief p%oetical quotations are fire.