The Crow’s Nest

One tiger prowls the jungle; another reads about it from a rocking-chair. The third insists the jungle be made uplifting—and Clarence Day’s sharpest joke is that all three look down on the tiger who simply goes outside.

In this early-20th-century collection, Day turns familiar comforts and cherished legends into targets for his dry, lively wit. He begins with readers who mistake information for experience, then peers past the shining armor of medieval romance to find knights who bullied merchants, fought among themselves, and called it a joke. Even the collectors who prize their armor seem to inherit something of the old order’s appetite for getting their way. Day’s comic comparisons keep unsettling the stories we like best—and the stories we tell about ourselves. If poets can make rough knights seem noble, what might future poets make of us?

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