Poems & Style

My research focused on two areas: what poems did the quotes from the story originate, and how similar was Mark Twain's style in his other speeches.

Every single quote spoken by Emerson, Longfellow, and Holmes did indeed come from a poem they had written. Emerson's poems include "Mithridates," "Brahma," "Song of Nature," and "Monadnoc." Poems written by Holmes were "The Chambered Nautilus" and "Mare Rubrum." Finally, quotes from Longfellow were taken from "The Four Winds," "Hiawatha's Wedding-Feast," "The Village Blacksmith," and "A Psalm of Life."

Just knowing where they came from, however, does not help in any way. First of all, many of the quotes are taken from the middle of a stanza and the middle of a sentence in the speaker's poem, and thus none are truly in context. So, when hearing Twain's speech, it would be quite funny to suddenly hear a line from a poem that is completely taken out of context and put into a derogatory sense. For example, Emerson's quote "Is yonder squalid peasant all / That his proud nursery could breed?" is taken from the middle of a sentence ( http://www.fullbooks.com/Poemsx21662.html).

I took a closer look at each of the quotes in the miner's story and matched them up with their original source - and found some interesting differences. Longfellow's first line, where he remarks "Honor be to Mudjekewwis! / You shall hear how Pau-Puk-Keewis-" is actually taken from two different poems - "The Four Winds" and "Hiawatha's Wedding-Feast." Even when this quote is first read, it is quite random. But, taken from two completely different poems, this quote adds to the humor of the story because of its complete randomness.

However, the best difference is when Twain actually edits the original lines of the poems and creates a pun. Part of Emerson's line from the story, "I pass and deal again," is edited from its original. In "Brahma," the original text reads "...pass, and turn again" (http://www.let.rug.nl/~usa/LIT/emerson.htm). Twain edited the original text to pun on the card game going on at this point in the story. In fact, he does it again in Emerson's next line: "I tire of globes and aces!" The original text, from "Song of Nature," reads "I tire of globes and races." So, again, Twain edits the original text to create a pun on the card game. Thus, with just two simple edits, Twain is able to produce a humorous pun.

I read some of Twain's other speeches, most found on: http://www.farid-hajji.net/books/en/Twain_Mark/mts-index.html. In most speeches, Twain usually had a touch of sarcasm or a sentence of humor. Some were filled with them, while others had a much more serious tone. However, just like the Whittier dinner speech, Twain is casual and seems to feel at one with his audience. But, the Whittier speech is unique in the sense that Twain pulls quotes from poems and mixes them in with the real story. On the website earlier mentioned, this exact copy of the story, plus Twain's response to Mrs. H, is the very first speech. So, if seems as if Twain was simply experimenting with this style, and from then on did not try it again.