Silence Dogood Essay No. 7 - The Bad Poets Society

Send us Fan MailIn this essay, in which Teen Ben Franklin trolls his brother James, Silence Dogood  features a real poem (An Elegy upon the much Lamented Death of Mrs. Mehitable Kitel) and dryly praises it as "the most Extraordinary Piece that ever was written in New-England."Ben Franklin then famously includes a satirical recipe for writing a terrible colonial elegy. He instructs readers to take a person's virtues, mix in a handful of melancholy words (like dreadful or cruel cold death), and "put them into the empty Scull of some young Harvard student to finish the job. It's another example of young Ben's satiric wit. Learn more about The Spectral and Literary Summit at our website - www.spectral-summit.com.  We offer historic and literary videos and podcasts that make the past and literature come alive.  This is a production of Creative Actors Lab . Check out our Instagram page here.