Viral plums

Language Log 2025-04-04

Ottilie Mitchell and Tiffanie Turnbull, "'Nowhere's safe': How an island of penguins ended up on Trump tariff list", BBC 4/4/2025:

Two tiny, remote Antarctic outposts populated by penguins and seals are among the obscure places targeted by the Trump administration's new tariffs.

Heard and McDonald Islands – a territory which sits 4,000km (2,485 miles) south-west of Australia – are only accessible via a seven-day boat trip from Perth, and haven't been visited by humans in almost a decade.

Australian trade minister Don Farrell told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that the tariffs were "clearly a mistake".

"Poor old penguins, I don't know what they did to Trump, but, look, I think it's an indication, to be honest with you, that this was a rushed process."

There have been various other reactions to those tariffs' math and geography — but my favorite commentary was a poem:

I have tariffed the penguins that are on Heard Island

and which you were probably assuming did not export goods

forgive me they were taking advantage of us so cunning and so cold

— Janel Comeau (@verybadllama.bsky.social) April 3, 2025 at 3:45 PM

…which of course is an echo of William Carlos Williams' 1934 poem "This is just to say":

I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold

The poem's Wikipedia page links to two articles about its viral uptake: "This is just to say we have explained the plum jokes in your Twitter feed" (2017) and "This is just to say… : The parodies of that ‘plums’ poem just keep coming" (2018). And I've seen another recent pastiche about SignalGate, not to mention an example that I posted last year about RFK Jr's dead bear ("This is just to say", 8/6/2024).

PennSound has many readings by Williams, five of which include this poem. Here's a version recorded in Rutherford NJ, June 1950:

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And another version, also recorded in Rutherford, from August 1950:

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A recording from Harvard in December of 1951 has two readings and some relevant commentary:

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In Van Nuys CA, November 1950, Williams also brings up possible psychiatric implications:

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My guess is that the rhetorical virality of this poem has not been dependent on its Freudian overtones, but I'm open to discussion of the issue.