{"id":8558,"date":"2022-10-20T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-20T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspaperhistory.com\/?p=8558"},"modified":"2022-10-20T01:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-10-20T05:00:00","slug":"the-bitter-wit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/the-bitter-wit\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bitter Wit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>From the <a href=\"https:\/\/chroniclingamerica.loc.gov\/lccn\/sn91064011\/1914-10-20\/ed-1\/seq-8\/\">Newark Evening Star, October 20, 1914<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<p>To speak unkindly isn\u2019t wit,<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;To say things that wound the heart<br\/>Is never clever\u2014not a bit.<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Though at the time you think it smart,<br\/>Far better is it to remain<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;As silent as a marble bust<br\/>Than speak and leave a track of pain<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Behind a smiling, bitter thrust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<p>The poisoned barb within a jest<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;That leaves a fellow being hurt<br\/>Is not a cleverness the test,<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Nor of a brain that is alert.<br\/>To gibe at age or private scars,<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Or sacred griefs proclaims the cad<br\/>And he who does it sadly mars<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The laughter that should leave us glad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<p>Unkindness isn\u2019t wit at all,<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;There\u2019s little humor in a sneer.<br\/>One cannot drench his speech in gall<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;And seek to laugh away the tear.<br\/>And he who poisons thus the gay<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Is just as cowardly as he<br\/>Who kicks a cripple\u2019s crutch away<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;And laughs his helplessness to see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the Newark Evening Star, October 20, 1914. To speak unkindly isn\u2019t wit,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;To say things that wound the heartIs never clever\u2014not a bit.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Though at the time you think it smart,Far better is it to remain&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;As silent as a marble bustThan speak and leave a track of pain&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Behind a smiling, bitter thrust. The poisoned barb within [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newark-evening-star","category-newspapers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8558\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}