Cottonwood report. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1893-1901, 1896-05-22
SOME WITTY PARoD1Es IN VERSE
AdrOit ManipulatiOns of Language
That Amuse and Instruct.

In the book he has recently prepared
S. Martin comes to the conclusion hat
1 good parody Is rarer than good poem,
says the New York Press. Thank the
Muses. Nine for that Most parodies gain
their chiefest charm from the remem-
GRANGE that they instill of the original
Yet there are those which are admirable
themselves-for their thought, or fancy,
,r TRUTH put wittily, instead of eloquent
y.
This from Punch, after Shakespeare, is
as pleasant satire as it is good poetic
form:
All the worlds a wardrobe
And all the girls and women merely wear
erS.
They have their fashions and fantasies,
And one she in many times wears many
garments
Throughout her seven ages. First the
baby.
Befrllled and broidered in her nurses
arms.
And / EN- the trim-hosed school girl, with
her fiounces,
And ll-boy-scorning face, tripping
skirt waggling,
Coquettishly to school. And then the flrt,
Ogling like Gree, with a blushins
''aeillade''
Kept on her low-cut corsage. Then a
Full of strange finery. vestured like an
angel,
Yelled vigorously, yet vigilant of glance,
Seeking the woman's characterization
Ey en- at the affairs steps. And then the
matron,
In fair rich velvet. with suave satin lined
With eyes severe and skirts of youthful
cut,
Full of dress-saws and modish instances
To teach her girls their part. The sixth
age shifts
Into the gray, yet gorgeous grandmamma
With gold pince-nez on nose and fan al
side,
Her youthful tastes still strong and
worldly wise
In sumptuary law, her quavering voice.
Pressing of fashion and LIE Toilet, pipes
OF robes and bargains rare. Last scene
of all,
That ends the sex's mode swayed his
IL second childishness and mere oblivion
OF youth, taste, passion, all-save love
of dress
Shirley Brooks gives an impression OF
the coarse though clever variety when he
PAROLES Goldsmith's lines:
When lovely woman, lump Of folly,
Would show the world her vainest trait;
Would treat herself as child her dolly,
And warn each man of sense away;
The surest method she'll discover
To prompt wink from every eye,
Degrade a spouse, disgust lover,
And spoil a scalp-skin is-to dye.
OF Jean Ingelew's style Calverley made
delightful fun:
In moss-prankt dells which the sunbeams
aatter
(And heaven knoweth what that may
/ mean;
Meaning, however, is no great matter.
| Where woods are a-tremble with riffs
| atween.
| Beats are curtseying, rising, bowling,
| boats in that climate are so polite),
And sands were ribbon of green endow
ing,
And o the sun-dazzle on bark and big--t
| Mr.. Martin would have parody glveI
honorable recognition at the hands o.
critics, because sit is the tombstone o.
! excellence" and because "a clever par
] ody often reveals writer's trick of styl'
| and expression, affectations and defcien
cies, as nothing could ever do. 1t
aim is a reforming and purifying one
To this recommendation of Mr.. Martin
one must make dissent. For 1t is one o
the truths Of rterature-of all the crea
tive arts In fact, bears reference to al
the striking personalities-that the sub
FINEST examples are the most easily trav
estied. 1t is the man who says or doe
the obvious and commonplace thing in tn
ordinary, who cannot be brilliantly pa'
odied.