IF I SHOULD DIE TO-NIGHT
There are a few poems in the English language which possess the dubious distinction of having been made famous by a parody. Southey’s “Father William” is perhaps the classic example.[1] It was Lewis Carroll who turned the poet laureate’s labored homily upon the advantages of a well-spent youth into the delightful nonsense which Alice repeated at the command of the Caterpillar. And similarly, in America, it was Ben King who put so much pep and point into a joyous parody of some pensive verses by Arabella Eugenia Smith that he effectively rescued them from the oblivion which otherwise would certainly have been their portion.
Under date of July 24, 1916, an Associated Press dispatch from Santa Barbara, Cal., announced the death at the age of seventy-two of the author of “If I Should Die To-night,” and thereby awoke the echoes of an old controversy—for not only was this Miss Smith’s one published poem, but, as has been the case with so many of the ewe lambs of literature, the honor of being its author was disputed by many claimants.
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