Stuff, John Smith—it’s bullock’s fat!
Funny Folks. November, 1879.
There is a burlesque of O. W. Holmes in Bayard Taylor’s Diversions of the Echo Club, entitled “The Psycho-Physical Muse,” but it is not an interesting specimen of Taylor’s power of imitation. A parody, “The Wheelless,” relating to bicycling, appears in Lyra Bicyclica, by J. G. Dalton (published in Boston, U.S., in 1880), but it is not of general interest.
WALT WHITMAN.
It is the part, one might almost say, the duty, of the parodist to exaggerate the defects of his original, and in the case of Whitman assuredly no mercy, and little justice have been shown. This is to be regretted, because Whitman has not so many readers in this country, as his parodists can command, and it is distinctly an advantage to have read the original poem before getting imbued with the bathos, and intentional nonsense of a parody. It is comparatively easy to reproduce and caricature Whitman’s manner. Consequently his mannerisms are far more familiar to most English readers than the vigour of his poetry, especially as owing to the mock-modesty of editors and publishers, many of his finest thoughts on the mysteries of nature, and the philosophy of life, have been omitted in English editions of his works.
Whitman is emphatically a poet for men, not for “Select Academies for the Daughters of Gentlemen only;” and whilst much that he has written is glorious poetry to those who will, and can imbibe its spirit freely, to those who cannot thus absorb it the Parodies will appear nearly as poetical as the original. His principal volume, “Leaves of Grass,” as published by James R. Osgood & Company, of Boston, U.S., is a marvellous book, but one from which it is extremely difficult to make a satisfactory selection of quotations which, whilst doing justice to Whitman, shall, at the same time, illustrate the parodies.
Not to be chosen from his solemn Salut au Monde, nor the pathetic Drum-taps, nor even from the much abused Children of Adam, these must be read entire, or not at all.
Walt Whitman’s egotism is a favourite topic with the parodists, here is a small extract from his
SONG OF MYSELF.