My Wife Had An Ulcer

This advertisement presents itself in multifaceted format, as both an advertisement and an unstructured free verse poem. This unconventional advertisement is not an entirely an advertisement, it appears to have been written in the style of a review but exclusively plugs the wonderous effects of " Wolcott's pain paint."(Line 12) But all in free verse poetry. It is interesting how this plug for mysterious "pain paint" follows the narrative focusing on the effects of opium (and opium addiction) on a chronic pain sufferer. With the commonality of opium, cocaine and alcohol in medication at the time, there is no doubt the "pain paint" featured some concoction along those lines.

The reflection of topical paint solution to a chronic illness reflects directly back onto the narrative of Ezra Jennings; however the difference is Ezra Jennings is not socially acceptable enough to write an advertisement poem over. The normalization procedure that Harper's Weekly conducts with the topic of disability and opium is astounding, repeatedly assuring the reader that Ezra Jennings beliefs on death, misery and solutions are justified.  

Works Cited: 

Harper’s Weekly: A Journal of Civilization. July 18th 1868. Pp 430-464