The University Museum

SOCIAL COMMENTARY THROUGH POETRY

Tribe of Monkeys

Mr. C. E. Wolf of DeSoto, Illinois, wrote "Tribe of Monkeys" during the first few years of the 1900s. Read by the author himself on this recording, this poem is an exercise in social commentary. Wolf mentions Charles Darwin's "famous plan" - a relatively new theory at the time, as The Origin of Species had been published only 40-odd years before this work was composed. Additionally, it is worth remembering that the "Monkey Trials" (State of Tennessee v. John Scopes) would not occur for another 25 years after the publication of this composition. However, in this poem it is the monkeys who question how closely they want to be associated with humans, given the behavior of the people they have observed.

Listen to this song in one of three formats.

Recorded by Professor McIntosh on February 1, 1953, Wolf uses the thoughts of the monkeys as a foil for his own observations. Class and economic disparity is the main topic of this composition, as the monkeys urge working people to stand up to oppressive rulers and Wall Street "thieves." By the poem's end, Wolf also reveals the role he feels that Christianity will play in the emancipation of laborers: "Let working men unite with Christ and free the human race."

Linder, Douglas 2002. State v. John Scopes ("The Monkey Trial"). http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/evolut.htm
Linder, Douglas 2004. Charles Darwin (1809-1882). http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/darwin.htm