Society Upon The Stanislaus
Bret Harte's 'Society Upon The Stanislaus' is a wickedly funny satirical poem that skewers the pretensions of Eastern 'respectable' folk who flooded into California during the Gold Rush, desperate to import civilization to the rough frontier. With razor-sharp wit, Harte imagines what happens when these delicate society types encounter the raw, unvarnished reality of mining camp life: they form their own absurd 'society' with ridiculous rules and regulations, attempting to impose the drawing rooms of Boston onto the banks of a muddy river. It's a poem that delights in exposing the hypocrisy of people who came west seeking gold but wanted desperately to pretend they'd never left their parlors. Harte's genius lies in his ear for the pompous language of the upper class, which becomes hilarious when applied to tent cities and saloons. This is frontier satire at its finest, a poem that captures the essential American comedy of trying to make the wild world conform to one's own image of respectability.
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Andrew Gaunce, Bruce Kachuk, CassiopeiaSparks, David Lawrence +8 more
