The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1921-09-22
IN FEW MINUTES
Immortal Poetry Fruit Of Mo-
maais cf Inspiration.
Masterpieces .: 80 Language
Thrown of" a. /: Wer:, BY /,
%lmperious Command

Tennyspn wrote that exquisite lyric,
Crossing the Bar" In q few minutes.
He said to his son, the present Lord
Tennyson, 1T came in a moment &C
cording to a writer In London Answers.
Burns composed what Carlyle char
acterizes as the greatest Of all battle
odes, "Scots Wha Hae," while riding
through storm and darkness across a
lonesome moor. One Of the very
greatest productions Of poetic inspira-
ton, Keats justly famous "Ode to q
Nightingale" was written in the course
Of n afternoon In the poets garden
at Hampstead, and his great sonnet
on Chapman's Homer was the product
Of an hour.
While visiting at Mimic, Thomas
Campbell went to bed early n eve
ming, his mind full Of a new poem.
About two in the morning he suddenly
awQke, repeating Events to come cast
their shadows BEFORE Ringing the
bell, he summoned a butler, who found
the poet half in and half out Of bed.
Are you i'll, sir? r asked the servant.
II was, never better" replied the
poet. leave the candle and bring me
a cup of tea"
Selling his pen and changing
Events to come" to "Coming events"
he not only coined one Of the best
known lines in English poetry. but
went on to finish the, first draft Of
'LOchiel's Warnin9." ms &
Cowper composed and memorized
piece, 'John Gilpin," during q sleep
less night. Hayley, the poets biog-
,rapher, tells the story: :
1T happened in those years when
his accomplished friend, Lady Austen,
made a part Of his little evening cir
Gle, that she observed him sinking into
increasing detection; it was her Gus
tom on these occasions to try immedi-
ate relief. She told him the story Of
John Gilpin to dissipate the gloom Of
the passing hour. Its effect on the
fancy of Cowper had the air. Of en-
| chantment. ~ U~
"He informed her the next morning
that commissions of laughter, brought
on by his ~rec0llections of her story,
had kept him awake during the great
er part of the night, and that he had
turned it into a ballad. So arose the
pleasant poem Of John Gilpin.'"
Seeing that it runs to 252 lines this
is no mean feat. -.:y -
Sir Arthur Pinero must be included
in any list Of rapid writer's. His 1.-Two
Hundred a Year" was the work Of q
single afternoon, and 1.-THE Money Spin.
ner'' was written with almost equal ra-
pidity; while Lords and Commons" q
big work, cost only ten days toll.
OF course, Byron worked as fast as
the fastest. He said of himself that he
was like a tiger-if he missed his first
spring, he lad to 60 grumbling back to
the Jungle. The rainy days at Ouchy
produced '"'The Prisoner Of Chillon,'
and it has been said that he wrote it al
one sitting with one pen and the first
sketch of 1.-The Bride Of Abydos'' was
written in four nights.
L~ongfellow's fine ballad, ''The Wreck
Of the Hesperus,'' one Of the most ia.
miliar poems in the language, came to
him as he sat costly by the fire during
a violent storm which made the win.
dows rattle. Like Cowper, he went
to bed and, finding himself too preoc.
cupied to sleep, finished the poem be
fore morning.