Happy Days — Reading Companion

(0 User reviews) 245

In Category - Fantasy Juvenile Worlds

Authors: Herford, Oliver, 1863-1935, Clay, John Cecil, 1875-1930 Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2007 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Toasts; Humorous poetry Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 4,090

Reading time 18 min

Text sections 1

Happy Days — Reading Companion can be approached with a clearer sense of reading commitment from its source measurements: 4,090 words, 18 min estimated reading time, and 1 detected text section.

The text analysis averages about 21.5 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.

Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “Toasts,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #23614

A 1917 collection of 22 humorous toast-poems by Oliver Herford and John Cecil Clay, each addressing a subject from Fashion to the Floor, with wordplay, varied rhyme schemes, and a recurring drinking motif.

Editorial Edition Score 4.4/5

★★★★★ ★★★★★

Calculated from edition completeness, EPUB availability, text structure and catalogue metadata. Not a user rating.

How this score is calculated

Description quality20 pts
Title & short description10 pts
Source metadata20 pts
Text length15 pts
Chapters / structure15 pts
EPUB file integrity20 pts

Total of 100 points, scaled to a 2.5-5.0 range. Editions with an empty description or a missing EPUB file are not scored.

Edition quality

File: pg23614

Read the Text

Produced by Anne Storer and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

Here's to stern Critics! May they some day learn The forward lookout's Better than the stern!

Here's to her shadow! May it mark the hours Upon the sundial of her life--in flowers!

BY OLIVER HERFORD AND JOHN CECIL CLAY

NEW YORK MITCHELL KENNERLEY

COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY MITCHELL KENNERLEY

THE.PLIMPTON.PRESS NORWOOD.MASS.U.S.A

PAGE TO STERN CRITICS 3 TO HER SHADOW 4 TO FASHION 9 TO THE TYPEWRITER 11 THE FLOOR 12 TO MUSIC 15 TO THE PUBLISHER 17 HERE'S LOOKING 19 THE DOVE OF PEACE 21 TO THE CLOCK 23 TO HOPE 25 TO LIBERTY 27 STAIRS: A TOAST 29 TO LADY NICOTINE 31 OH, EDITOR, EDITOR! 33 TO THE CREDITOR 35 TO NEPTUNE 37 TO THE WAITER 39 TO TEMPTATION 41 TO THE MAID WITH FANCY FREE 43 TO OUR SWEETHEARTS 45 TO OUR READERS 46

Fashion! Lovely Dame! Pledge in sparkling wine! Let us add her name To the Muses' nine!

Though the lovely Nin All should pass away Why should Woman pine, If but Fashion stay?

Tho' the Muses' lore Molder on the shelf, Still may She adore In Fashion's glass--Herself.

Here's to the Typewriter! Health to her type! Whether blond or brunette Or budding or ripe. If she be the right type Be she buxom or slight, When she doesn't type wrong She is sure to typewrite.

Here's to the floor, Our best friend of all, Who sticks to us close In the time of our fall. When benches are fickle And tables betray And rugs are revolving, He meets us half-way. Our stay and support, When we can't stand alone, With the floor for a backer, We'll never be thrown. Here's to our friend, In life's every stage! Dry nurse of infancy, Wet nurse of age! _A health_ to our floor! Supporter and stay; Though he often be full, May he never give way!

Here's to Music, Joy of joys! One man's music's Another man's noise.

To The Publisher!--Drink! Let his virtue be shown In the _Good Works_ of others If not in his own.

Here's looking at you, dear! though I should pour A sea of wine, my eyes would thirst for more.

Here's to the Dove of Peace! May she find a mate some day, And may her tribe increase As fast as she can lay!

With cooing doves galore Then may the sky be dark Until the Dogs of War Can't see each other bark!

Here's to the Clock! Whose hands, we pray heaven, When we come home at three, Have stopped at eleven!

Here's to Hope, the child of Care, And pretty sister of Despair! Here's hoping that Hope's children shan't Take after their Grandma or Aunt!

Here's to our Goddess, Liberty, Idol of bronze and stone! May she awake to life some day And let her charms be known.

Here's to the man who invented stairs And taught our feet to soar! He was the first who ever burst Into a second floor.

The world would be downstairs to-day Had he not found the key; So let his name go down to fame, Whatever it may be.

Here's to Lady Nicotine! Saint and Sorceress and Queen! Saint, whose purple halo rings Lift our eyes from earthly things; Witch, whose wand of scented briar Transmutes dead weeds to fragrant fire; Queen, whose rod her slaves adore! What can freedom offer more?

OH, EDITOR, EDITOR, Awful and grand, Who holdest our fate In the palm of thy hand, Dost ever reflect How one day thy ghost To an Editor awf'ler And grander will post? Before him a great Golden scroll is spread wide, And a bottomless waste-basket Yawns at his side. With a swift searching glance He reads through thy soul, Then he looks at the basket, Then looks at the scroll; He purses his lips And nibbles his pen, And frowns for one long Awful moment--and then-- Oh, Editor!--think! if thy Poor crumpled soul Fall into the basket And not in the scroll!

Here's to the Creditor, Long may he reign! May his Faith never waver, His Trust never wane. May the Lord make him gentle And gracious and gay, Yet quick to resent The least offer of pay: May he soften his heart As he softened, we're told, To the Israelite's 'touch,' The Egyptian of old; And when on his last Long account he shall look, The angel will say As he closes the book: "The Lord gives you Credit For Credit you gave"! So here's to the Creditor-- Long may he waive.

Continue Reading →

Happy Days opens with a toast to stern critics, advising that the forward lookout is better than the stern—a playful inversion of nautical terms that sets the tone for the collection. The book comprises 22 short poems, each a toast to a different subject, from Fashion to the Floor, from the Typewriter to the Clock. The poems are unified by their drinking conceit and a consistent voice that is witty, self-deprecating, and fond of puns. The structure is simple: each poem occupies a page or two, with a title and a brief epigraph-like heading. The meter varies, but many use anapestic or iambic rhythms, and rhyme schemes range from couplets to quatrains. The collection moves through domestic, social, and abstract subjects, creating a mosaic of early 20th-century urban life.

Recurring Images and Motifs

Several images recur across the toasts. The most prominent is the drinking vessel itself—wine, sparkling wine, a sea of wine—which appears in nearly every poem. This motif is literal (the poems are toasts) but also metaphorical: the glass becomes a lens through which to view each subject. Another recurring image is the body in motion: stairs that let feet soar, a floor that meets us halfway, a clock whose hands are prayed to stop. These images suggest a world of small, everyday actions elevated to ritual. The poems also frequently invoke shadows, mirrors, and reflections, as in the toast to Her Shadow, where the shadow marks hours on a sundial of flowers. This interplay of light and dark, solid and insubstantial, gives the collection a delicate, almost ephemeral quality.

Wordplay and Rhyme Schemes

The poems rely heavily on puns and clever rhymes. In To the Typewriter, the word 'type' is twisted through multiple meanings: 'the right type,' 'typewrite.' The rhyme of 'brunette' with 'ripe' is unexpected and playful. To the Clock uses a simple couplet with a twist: the hands are prayed to have stopped at eleven when the drinker comes home at three. The rhyme of 'heaven' with 'eleven' is exact but the logic is comic. Many poems employ anapestic meter, which gives a jaunty, sing-song quality. Others, like To the Publisher, use iambic pentameter for a more stately tone. The variety in form keeps the collection from becoming monotonous, and the wordplay often rewards rereading.

Movement Between Scenes

The sequence of toasts creates a kind of journey through a day or a life. It begins with critics and shadows, moves to fashion and the typewriter (work), then to the floor and music (domestic life), then to the publisher and the dove of peace (public and political life), and finally to the clock, hope, liberty, stairs, and lady nicotine (personal vices and virtues). This movement is not strictly narrative but associative: each subject suggests the next. The floor, for example, is a humble subject that leads to music (which might be heard in a room with a floor), then to the publisher (who might publish music), then to the dove of peace (a political hope). The reader is carried along by these connections, which are often ironic or humorous.

The Role of the Reader and the Toast

The poems are explicitly addressed to the reader as a fellow drinker. The opening toast 'To Stern Critics' includes the reader in the act of drinking, and the closing 'To Our Readers' directly acknowledges the audience. This framing turns the collection into a shared ritual. The reader is invited to raise a glass to each subject, participating in the humor and the sentiment. The poems often use second-person address ('Here's looking at you, dear!') or inclusive first-person ('Our best friend of all'). This direct engagement creates a sense of intimacy and immediacy, as if the reader is in a room with the poets. The toasts are not just poems to be read but performances to be enacted, making the book a kind of script for a convivial evening.

Happy Days is best read aloud, with a glass in hand. The poems are short enough to be savored one at a time, and the sequence rewards dipping in and out. The humor is gentle, the wordplay clever, and the overall effect is one of light-hearted conviviality. Readers interested in early 20th-century light verse or the tradition of the toast will find this a charming example.

Reading these toasts for Fashion and Floor reminds me how gently Herford and Clay laughed at the everyday. It’s a mood I carry into quieter hours, much like the ache in How Lisa Loved the King — Background and Themes—two very different cheers to the same human folly. I keep them both on the shelf, near the lamp.