Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1890-06-05
Verse Making.
THE ART OF POETRY TAUGHT IN EASY
LESSONS.

THE ART OF POETRY TAUGHT IN EASY
LESSONS.
10 W Holmes, in Atlantic Monthly.
gave piece Of advice the other day
which | SAID | thought deserved para
graph to itself. 1t was from letter
wrote not long ago TO an unknown young
correspondent, who had longing for see
ing himself in verse. but was not hope
lessly infatuated with the idea that he was
born poet" when you write in
prose-" | said, you say what you mean.
When you write in verse you say what you
must" | was thinking more especially OF
rhymed verse. Rhythm alone Is tether,
and not a very long one. But rhymes are
iron fetters It is dragging chain and
ball TO march under their incumbrance; 1t
Is a clog -dauce you are figuring in, when
YOU execute your metrlcal pas seW. Con-
slider under what disadvantage your
thinking powers are laboring when you are
handicapped bv the memorable demands OF
our scanty English rhyming vocabulary
You want to say something about the
heavenly bodies. and you have beautiful
line ending with the word stars. Were you
writing in prose, your Imagination, your
fancy. your rhetoric, your musical ear for
| the harmonies of language, would all have
! full play. But there is your rhyme fasten-
| ing YOU BY the leg and you must either
| reject the line which peases you, or you
must whip your hobbling fancy ana all
| your limpng thoughts into the traces
which are hitched to one of three or four
or half a dozen serviceable words. You
cannot make any use OF cars, VIII sup
pose; you have no occasion to talk abou,
sears 1.-THE red planet Mars" has been used
La. cai1 oh
the gallant tars what is there left for you
but barsI So you give up your trains OF
thought, capitulated to necessity and man
age to lug IN some kind Of allusion. il
place or out of place. which will allow you
to make use Of bars.
Can there De imagined more certain
process for breaking up all continuity OF
thought, for taking out all the vigor, al
yirility, which belongs 10 natural prose q!
the vehicle of strong, graceful, spontan
eous thought, than this miserable subJuga
tion of intellect to the clink of well or IL
matched syllables?
think YOU will smile If tell you of al
idea have had about teaching the art o
writing poems" to the half-witted chill
dren at the idiot asylum. The trick o
rhyming cannot be more usefully employed
than in furnishing a pleasant amusemen
to the poor feeble minded children.
should feel that vas we'll employed Il
getting up primer for the pupils Of tn
asylum, and other young persons who ar
incapable of serious thought and connecte
expression. would start in the simples
way, thus:
When darkness wells the evening
love to close my weary
} The pupil begins by supplying the missn
/ words, which most children who are abl
to keep out Of Hre and water can accom-
plish after certain number of trial'
. When the poet that is to be has got so
] to perform this task easily, skeleto
r verse, In which two or three words Of eac
-. line are omitted, is given the child to d
up By and by the more difficult forms
;, metre are outlined, until ct length fe
q ble-minded child can make out some
n completely equipped .wlth its four pairs
/, rhymes in the first section and its thr'
: pairs In the second part.