Arthur Guiterman
Arthur Guiterman was an American writer best known for his humorous poems.
Life and career
Guiterman was born of American parents in Vienna. He was graduated from the City College of New York in 1891, and later was married in 1909 to Vida Lindo. He was an editor of the Woman's Home Companion and the Literary Digest. In 1910, he cofounded the Poetry Society of America, and later served as its president in 1925–26.An example of his humour is a poem that talks about modern progress, with rhyming couplets such as "First dentistry was painless;/Then bicycles were chainless". It ends on a more telling note:
Another Guiterman poem, "On the Vanity of Earthly Greatness", illustrates the philosophy also incorporated into his humorous rhymes:
Perhaps his most-quoted poem is his 1936 "DARling" satire about the Daughters of the American Revolution.
That poem has a unique, intricate, strongly dramatic rhythmical structure...as analyzed, line by line and syllable by syllable, below. The number of syllables in each line is shown in . Strong accents are indicated by !. No accent, or a weak accent, is indicated by ^.
The D.A.R.lings ^ ! ! ! ^
chatter like starlings !!^ !^
telling their ^^^
ancestors' ^^^
names, !
while grimly aloof, ^ ! ^ ^ !
with looks of reproof, ^ ! ^ ^ !
sit the Co- ^^^
lonial ^^^
Dames. !
The Cincinnati, ^! ^ !!
merry and chatty, !^^ !^
dangle their !^^
badges and !^^
pendants; ! ^
but haughty and proud, ^ !^^ !
disdaining the crowd, ^ !^^ !
brood the ^^
Mayflower ! ! !
descendants. ^ ! ^
He also notably wrote the libretto for Walter Damrosch's The Man Without a Country which premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City on May 12, 1937.
Poetry
;Collections| Title | Year | First published | Reprinted/collected |
| Indifference | 1925 | ||
| I've never found that being clever | 1925 | ||
| Lyrics from the Pekinese | 1925 | ||
| Lyrics from the Pekinese | 1925 | ||
| Lyrics from the Pekinese | 1925 | ||
| Lyrics from the Pekinese | 1925 | ||
| Lyrics from the Pekinese | 1925 | ||
| Lyrics from the Pekinese | 1925 | ||
| Lyrics from the Pekinese | 1925 | ||
| Lyrics from the Pekinese | 1925 | ||
| Lyrics from the Pekinese | 1925 | ||
| Lyrics from the Pekinese | 1925 | ||
| Lyrics from the Pekinese | 1925 | ||
| Religion | 1925 | ||
| Rendevous | 1925 |
;Translations