I send back the poems, with a few suggestions. You grow great so
rapidly that I shall not much longer dare to touch your work. I mean
that.
Your criticisms of Stedman's Anthology are just. But equally just ones
can be made of any anthology. None of them can suit any one. I fancy
Stedman did not try to "live up" to his standard, but to make
_representative_, though not always the _best_, selections. It would
hardly do to leave out Whitman, for example. _We_ may not like him;
thank God, we don't; but many others--the big fellows too--do; and in
England he is thought great. And then Stedman has the bad luck to know
a lot of poets personally--many bad poets. Put yourself in his place.
Would you leave out me if you honestly thought my work bad?
In any compilation we will all miss some of our favorites--and find
some of the public's favorites. You miss from Whittier "Joseph
Sturge"--I the sonnet "Forgiveness," and so forth. Alas, there is no
universal standard!
Thank you for the photographs. Miss * * * is a pretty girl, truly, and
has the posing instinct as well. She has the place of honor on my
mantel. * * * But what scurvy knave has put the stage-crime into her
mind? If you know that life as I do you will prefer that she die, poor
girl.
It is no trouble, but a pleasure, to go over your verses--I am as
proud of your talent as if I'd made it.
Sincerely yours,
AMBROSE BIERCE.
[over]
About the rhymes in a sonnet:
"Regular", or "English" Modern
Italian form form English
(Petrarch): (Shakspear's): 1
1 1 2
2 2 2
2 1 1
1 2 1
1 3 2
2 4 2
2 3 1
1 4 Two or three
3 5 rhymes; any
4 6 arrangement
5 5
3 6
4 7
5 7
There are good reasons for preferring the regular Italian form created
by Petrarch--who knew a thing or two; and sometimes good reasons for
another arrangement--of the sestet rhymes. If one should sacrifice a
great thought to be like Petrarch one would not resemble him.