Hush-A-Bye, Puppy-Monkey-Baby

On February 6th, we posted an entry on our Plog (the Emmett Lee Dickinson Museum poetry blog) entitled "A Super Phenomenon."  We noted in that post that "the only thing about the Super Bowl that is not associated with America’s greatest poet is the presence of television commercials!" 

Well, we stand corrected!  We mined our fact-finding research and investigative studies until we hit a weighty nugget -- Emmett Lee Dickinson's late 19th-century ode to something called a "Puppy Monkey Baby." 

In the late 1800s, the Mountain Dew Soda Company introduced a marketing campaign they rolled out for a series of college football championship games.  It included a mythical beast called the "Puppy Monkey Baby."  

The creature horrified the public, so the ad campaign was dropped just weeks after its inauguration.  Now, in 2016, the company has resurrected the campaign -- so we'll see how long it lasts!

Pictured above:  The first Mountain Dew Campaign featuring the Puppy Monkey Baby.

Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request) wrote about Mountain Dew's Puppy Monkey Baby in his now-classic poem "Gnoshing and eatin’, watching TV" (below on the left).  His poem inspired third cousin Emily to pen her poem "Trudging to Eden, looking backward" (below on the right).

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:
 
Gnoshing and eatin’, watching TV,
I saw Somebody’s little
     Puppy Monkey Boy
He said his name – He lisped me
     “Kickstart” –
Mountain Dew, does He belong to thee?
 
Would it kickstart – to know I drank it –
And His looks made me so afraid!
I couldn’t watch – though I was trying –
New Acquaintance – this
      Puppy Monkey Baby freak –

By Emily Dickinson:
 
Trudging to Eden, looking backward,
I met Somebody's little
      Boy
Asked him his name – He lisped me
      "Trotwood" –
Lady, did He belong to thee?

Would it comfort – to know I met him –
And that He didn't look afraid?
I couldn't weep – for so many smiling
New Acquaintance – this
     Baby made –