1872 juvenile fiction Poetry Machine

“Machine-made poetry does not sell very well. It is like machine-made pants for boys; it rips badly if you read it too fast, just as the pants burst dreadfully when the boys who wear them climb too many fences or play leap-frog too hard.”

from “The Poetry Machine,” by Charles Barnard, in Our Boys and Girls Monthly, Volumes 11-12, (Oliver Optic, editor) pg 509-512, 1872.

So much win precludes further comment.

I came across this on twitter (er…. @jbenton!!!) The whole story is gold, apparently from a collection of juvenile literature straight outta the industrial revolution.

EDIT: come to think of it, the story’s in the public domain, so here you go, courtesy of the google digitizers. Those of us who wrestle with generators will especially relate to the kid’s authoring experiences towards the end. CLICK TO ENLARGE.