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Prohibition -- Franklin P Adams

       
(Poem #1914) Prohibition
 Prohibition is an awful flop.
 We like it.
 It can't stop what it's meant to stop.
 We like it.
 It's left a trail of graft and slime,
 It don't prohibit worth a dime,
 It's filled our land with vice and crime.
 Nevertheless, we're for it.
-- Franklin P Adams
      (1931)

Note: Prohibition: The period (1920-1933) during which the 18th Amendment
  forbidding the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages was in force in
  the United States.

You'd think a 1931 poem about a long-since repealed law in a single country
would be badly dated by now. You'd be wrong. You'd think that a poem which
on the surface veers between nursery rhyme and doggerel would be at best a
passing, topical protest with little of enduring value. You'd be wrong
again. Despite Adams's reputation as a purveyor of light verse, I think
today's poem is actually a deeper and more significant poem than it first
appears.

"Prohibition" speaks out against every law, every regulation, and, indeed,
every custom that was instituted because it "seemed like a good idea at the
time", and retained with limpet-like tenacity because, despite evidence that
it wasn't helping, dropping it would invalidate someone's cherished theory
about the way things *should* work. And, almost needless to say, things are
little different today than they were back in Adams's 1930s - the specifics
vary but the principle is depressingly constant.

The nursery-rhyme form actually adds to the poem's impact - the repeated "we
like it" response is (without any explicit commentary) held up as both
simplistic and foolish. Again, the poem's quotability and memorability are
both greatly enhanced by its simple, singsong structure. Of course, the use
of doggerel and nursery rhymes for political protest has a long and
honourable tradition - the implication being that this is not a poet's poem,
but a people's poem - and "Prohibition" takes its place comfortably within
that tradition.

martin

[Links]

Biography: American journalist and radio personality (1881-1960)
  http://www.mgilleland.com/fpabio.htm

30 comments: ( or Leave a comment )

Bob & Judy Williams said...

Adams surely had in mind the poem popular at least as early as 1936.

Tobacco is a filthy weed.
I like it.
It satisfies no normal need.
I like it.
It makes you thin, it makes you lean,
It takes the hair right off your bean;
It's the worse darn stuff I've ever seen.
I like it.

Anonymous

Verse in this form was known as a Little Willie, reason unknown to
me.

Bob Williams

Anastasios Kozaitis said...

Yes, but the irony lies in the fact that Adams favorably alludes to a new
libertarian society while limiting himself to the rules of rhyme, no?

Tim Reynolds said...

From my childhood, an anthology I think:

Tobacco is a filthy weed
I like it
It satisfies no normal need
I like it
It makes you thin, it makes you lean,
It burns the hair right off your bean
It's the worst darn stuff I ever seen
I like it

tt

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