If you’re on social media you’ll have seen
a poem that begins:
And the people stayed home
It was written in 1869 by Kathleen O’Meara,
a French-Irish writer, and reprinted during the 1919 pandemic. The post shows a
helpful black and white picture from those times to underline the point….
Except it wasn’t. Anyone with any knowledge
of history or poetry can see that. Nobody in 1869 would have been concerned
with meditation or the global renewal of nature as pollution dies down.
It was, in fact, written in March 2020 by a
retired US teacher called Catherine O’Meara, and posted on her blog.
The poem isn’t my cup of tea at all. I find
it overly sentimental mush, but many have loved it and shared it. In fact I seem to see it posted weekly by someone on different social media platforms. I even found it on the site of Cardiff
Cathedral when I searched online, along with the spurious history. There are
lots of Youtube read-outs, too.
To muddy the waters further an Italian author had claimed it was hers, translated by the modern US
author. That claim then seemed to die down.
So why has
it been hijacked and given a false date and author?
The writer has now been interviewed by
Oprah and quoted by Deepak Chopra, but neither mentioned the fakery. I can’t find anything online to explain why it got faked up. It’s not
political. It doesn’t criticize anyone. It’s just a somewhat woolly modern mindfulness
poem.
What does someone have to gain by faking
the date and authorship and relating it to the current situation to
get it to ‘do the rounds’.
I asked @fakehistoryhunter on Twitter, who makes a point of trying to debunk these things. They replied "We will probably never know" but suggested that it was someone trying to get more attention. Who? One cannot say.
I asked @fakehistoryhunter on Twitter, who makes a point of trying to debunk these things. They replied "We will probably never know" but suggested that it was someone trying to get more attention. Who? One cannot say.
Is it some kind of ‘clickbait’ – enticing people to click on a link so that
an unknown company has their data? That’d be my guess, though it is just a guess. Perhaps someone with a cyber-detective bent might start digging and find out in the months to come.
If that is so, it’s been incredibly successful
clickbait - so I wonder if we will see more literature being used as fake content?
Any theories?
Moira Butterfield
Lots of books coming out…..er…….soon.
9 comments:
I hadn't heard of this poem until you mentioned it. (Low social media profile.) I wonder if attributing it to a 19th century gives it an added cachet. Something along the lines of: If it's this old, it MUST be good. Whereas if it was only written this year, then it's little more than a trivial doodle. Years ago, a fake Harvard (?) commencement address from Kurt Vonnegut made the rounds on the internet. Everyone laughed and marvelled at his wit. Except he didn't write it, and he said so. I think whoever copied his style knew that if he/she put their own name to it, it would have been ignored. Attributing it to Vonnegut ensured that it was read. Still strange, though.
Never heard of it. I'd say the author herself faked the history because it would vanish without trace with nothing to mark it out as different. There's quite enough sentimental drivel already...
I've seen it over and over again, mostly on Facebook but also posted by friends to various whatsapp groups I'm on. It's big. Whether we like it or not, it's really worked with a lot of people and made it viral.
This was sent to me via facebook. I didn't believe it, of course, and soon tracked down the original. The fake is slightly different from the original all the way through (perhaps someone hoping to avoid copyright infringement?) The original is better, if you like that sort of thing; I don't. Goodness knows why the fake was put out there.
Is this when i say that I haven't seen it?
This is a very interesting post & phenomonon, Moira, and I wonder if there has to be almost a "national wish" for the thing to be "real"?
At the end of the 18C/start of 19C, a series of epic poems appeared, translated from the writings of Ossian, a 3rd Century Gaelic Bard. Highly praised, Ossian's poetic Celtic legends were enthused over by various high profile folk, poets and writers - and eventually discovered to be fakes.
Nevertheless, at a time when the Graeco-Roman Classics dominated, Ossian represented an important alternative literature and culture. On reflection, this might have been when Britain was at war with European powers too. Foreshadowing the Victorian love of Arthurian legend/Celtic Twilight,etc, no doubt.
I will no doubt see lots of the poem now!
Fascinating. Penny. I will look that up now to see who faked it. Anne, that's very interesting about the subtle changes made to the poem - perhaps letting the author off the suspicion hook in my opinion. Yes, I think it's a vapid piece but it seems to speak to people (including Deepak Chopra and Oprah).
There's also a fake (very obviously fake) bit of CS Lewis's The Screwtape Letters circulating now. I think it's to do with harking back to previous disasters, a sense that we have survived and can survive anything.
Nostradamus would be amazed, and probably flattered, to read interpretations of his prophecies in the 21st century. Likewise Einstein and the Buddha (and don't get me started on Christianity!)Fascinating about Oissin, Penny - when I was in my deeply Irish period (ie around 15/16) I would have gobbled up every word of it.
We're a storytelling species, and we make things up. No I haven't read the lock-down poem that's apparently going viral. I had a tiny experience of this a few years ago when reading online reviews of one of my books (not to be recommended!) where a reader posted that she absolutely KNEW the plot was based around her and her life, and was quite surprised to find it in a novel.
And a lot of people have tin ears - or zero common sense. There's a poem that goes: I wish I loved the Human Race;
I wish I loved its silly face;
I wish I liked the way it walks;
I wish I liked the way it talks;
And when I'm introduced to one,
I wish I thought "What Jolly Fun!"
Now I think you'll agree nothing could be less like a 16th century poem? Yet, because it's by A Sir Walter Raleigh - one who died in 1922 - I've seen it in a couple of anthologies attributed to THE Sir Walter Raleigh. WOuldn't you think alarm bells would have rung, and the editors would have checked?
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