I've always assumed he took on that entire scene of sentimental Victorian 'poetry'. The Victorians had a 'death industry' every bit as saturating as our contempory sex industry. Their popular poetry is absolutely stuffed with "alas" and "woe". It wasn't simply Poe who got rapturous over the deaths of fragile and beautiful virgins. It was that same part of the reading public that now slurps up Silhouette romances. This sort of mournful junk went on until at least the 1920's. After WWI and influenza, I assume that mourning learned a route beyond sentimentality and into grim reality. Jack Cady [log in to unmask] On Fri, 15 Mar 1996, Wm. Thomas Hill wrote: > I am assuming that the "Ode to Stephen Dowling Bots, Dec'd." in Chapter 17 > of HF is a satire on someone. Huck says, "If Emmeline Grangerford could > make poetry like that before she was fourteen, there ain't no telling what > she could a done by-and-by. Buck said she could rattle off poetry like > nothing. She didn't ever have to stop to think." This last sentence is, > of course, obvious from the poem. Can someone tell me who this barb is > directed toward? > > Tom in Tokyo > [log in to unmask] >