I
Many people have said to me, “I wish I could write poems. I often try,
but----” They mean, I gather, that the impulse, the creative itch, is
in them, but they don’t know how to satisfy it. My own position is that
I know how to write poetry, but I can’t be bothered. I have not got the
itch. The least I can do, however, is to try to help those who have.
A mistake commonly committed by novices is to make up their minds what
it is they are going to say before they begin. This is superfluous
effort, tending to cramp the style. It is permissible, if not
essential, to select a _subject_--say, MUD--but any detailed argument
or plan which may restrict the free development of metre and rhyme (if
any) is to be discouraged.
With that understanding, let us now write a poem about MUD.