Evening star., 1925-09-15

"A little nonsense, now and then,
| is relished by the best of men, and, i,
az Roy Octavus Cohen would say,
one of them you is which,
No wonder my kindly and interest
ing correspondent got Off on the
wrong foot" for life with What Does
Little Birdie Sayp'
| This is as striking an instance of
| the power of ridicule, especially in
| youth, as I have ever heard of. Ger
| tainly no child who ever read that
| froggie.piggie effort could ever have
anything but laughter left for it's
| birdie baby prototype.
| Yet how innocent, how clean, still
! stands Tennyson's song, despite that
early instance of undertaking. What
Thackeray's Magazine paid the poet
laureate such huge sum for was his
name and his idea.
Because he was famous, the maya
zine was willing to pay him big, as
we say today, to prevent some COM
petitor getting the poem. Competition
| established the price. Many incom-
few dollars. Price does not estab-
lish worth in literature. Only time
does that.
Once Tennyson had conceived the
idea of contrasting the bird with the
baby, 1t was easy enough for any one,
country newspaper editor or smart
aleck city man, to write a burlesque.
So 1t was that all could stand an
egg on end after Columbus had shown
them how to do it.
Parodies of great poems are the
| easiest things in the world for an or
dinarily clever person to evolve.
The shame of the darn things is
that the better the original poem, the
better the parody. In other words,
| If you chuckle at the parody, it is a
| sure sign that the original is very
good, or there would not be enough
contrast to make the former laugh.
! able.
The very fact that practically every
reader will be delighted with the
froggie- -piggie burlesque proves. it
| seems to me, the innate worth OF
| Tennyson's birdie-baby lullaby.
| The trouble with poems that fall
| within the classification Of tender is
that they were written in the quiet
OF the study. and were meant to be
read IN the sauctity OF the home, where
as all too often they are paraded in
the public prints" to use a curious
pm dsCT anu IdNO " III Tic saHtlCl
! OF all sorts and conditions Of men,
many Of whom are not appreciators.
What Does Little Birdie say"
brings out. as well as any poem could,
the necessity for poetry Of the high
est sensibilities being read in the home
circle, where gentleness is not some
thing to be laughed at, nor tenderness
something to be burlesqued.
| Our Anglo-Saxon heritage is one of
curious contrasts. In our homes we
| listen with satisfaction to the mother
| singing to her little one some foolish,
| tender fancy, but when we get among
our office mates we find it necessary
| to laugh nightly at the very same
| lullaby, for fear, forsooth, some one
may think US a bit unmanly.
| The so-called double standard u
therefore. Is not confined solely to
one province of life, but finds its way
| into our literary judgments. so that
we have one set OF standards for our
public use and another for our private
| The editor OF the country newspaper
of long ago, stung by jealousy to think
| he had to work all year to make as
much as Alfred Lord Tennyson, gar
nered In a few minutes Of pleasant
writing. took his pen in hand and
wrote parody which he rightly val.
ued at quarter.
| Then he went home and found his
wife reading to their little ones What
Does Little Birdie Say?'