Dark Angels Note 168

Dearest Friends

Welcome back to our Friday Note – our weekly collection of writerly thoughts. 

Observing

Today marks the birthday of Julia A. Moore (1 December 1847 – 5 June 1920).

Moore, according to Wikipedia, is “best known for writing notoriously bad poetry.”

However, this Poetaster published several books of verse, a short story, and a novella, and performed at the Grand Rapids Opera House with orchestral accompaniment (albeit to a jeering rather than cheering audience).

Moore was parodied in Huckleberry Finn as the character Emmeline Grangerford. Mark Twain observed that Moore had “the touch that makes an intentionally humorous episode pathetic and an intentionally pathetic one funny.” 

Reading

Moore drew on her locality and current affairs for inspiration – an obituary or a cricket match could be committed to verse. It was her “cloying sincerity” that made her easy pickings for the satirists of the time.

Read more about The Poetaster on The Paris Review. 

Writing

Look in your local news and find a human-interest story. Whether it lends itself to a little humour or a more sentimental touch, try re-telling it in verse.

Photo by Joanna Kosinska on Unsplash