TYPES OF MODERN VERSE
_Vers de Societe_
Vers de societe, "society verse," is a development of the last century;
almost, one might say, of the last twenty-five years. In that time there
has been composed a great volume of this sort of verse upon which a
number of the minor poets have based their claims to remembrance. It is
difficult to define _vers de societe_; in fact, the only way it can be
described is through examples. Its characteristics are a gracefulness of
thought and style, a fluency in expression, a vein of delicate humor or
sentiment and a subject which falls within the limits of "polite
conversation." It sparkles or should sparkle with clever turns of
thought and at times even descends to a sort of punning. No attempt is
made to reach the sublime, but serious _vers de societe_ is often
written and is the more effective because of its contrasted setting. The
ballade, rondeau and triolet are favorite expressions of this style of
verse, for in general its writers seek difficult stanza forms with
rhymes natural but never hackneyed.
As an exercise its making is both profitable and difficult. On trial, it
will be found no easy matter to write line after line of every-day
English into balanced verse that is not commonplace, but once well done
it is a much easier task to find a market.
Calverley's "Fly Leaves" approach the classic of _vers de societe_.
Austin Dobson has worked in a more serious vein. Praed has written some
delightfully easy specimens of the style, while in America John G. Saxe,
Oliver Wendell Holmes and a number of contemporary writers are
responsible for an extensive output ranking well up with England's.
_The Dramatic Interlude_
The serious drama in verse nowadays is a drug on the market as far as
selling power is concerned, unless we except the plays of Stephen
Phillips. There is, however, a sort of dramatic interlude which is not
only marketable but much more easily and pleasantly written; a
composition on the general order of Dobson's "Proverbs in Porcelain." A
study of the "Proverbs" will go further for an understanding of the
subject than pages of explanation.
They are written in iambic tetrameter which is kept from singsongness by
the action of the dialogue. The characters seldom end their speeches at
the end of the line but rather in the middle, and the line is filled out
by the first words of the next speaker.
These little play fragments, built in the form of a delicate comedy, are
not long enough to exhaust either writer or reader and are even to be
met with now and then in our modern magazines. Their value for the verse
maker lies in the premium which they put upon ease and naturalness of
expression, though in addition they present a novel exercise to the
student who is tired of writing his narratives in conventional verse.
The "Proverbs" are suggested not as models to copy absolutely but rather
as the base of variations which the verse maker may devise to suit his
theme.
_Nonsense Verse_
Nonsense verse in its present development is a fairly modern growth. It
began with the limerick which first reached the public under the kindly
patronage of Mother Goose:
"There was an old man of Bombay,
Who pulled at a pipe made of clay,
But a long-legged snipe
Flew away with the pipe
Which vexed that old man of Bombay."
With this as a beginning the limerick has spread far and wide. It has
secured a place in modern nonsense verse corresponding to that of the
sonnet in more serious efforts. There are even limerick fiends who
pride themselves on their writing of limericks and others whose
collections of the form total up in the thousands.
It is very seldom that one sees a limerick now with the first and last
lines identical. As a rule the last line differs from the first and ends
in a new rhyme. The following taken from _Life_ represents the
apotheosis of the limerick:
"A German from over the Rhine
When asked at what hour he would dine,
Replied, 'At Five, Seven,
Eight, Ten and Eleven,
Four, Six and a Quarter to Nine!'"
Edward Lear, an English writer, began the popularization of the limerick
in his nonsense books about 1850 and since his time it has been
experimented with by many of the cleverest writers now before the
public.
But nonsense verse is not confined to this one form. Passing from the
work of Lear we come to Lewis Carroll's verse in "Alice in Wonderland."
Nothing of its kind better than "Jabberwocky" has ever been written,
and it would be a bold verse maker who would try to improve on "The
Walrus and the Carpenter," or any of the other "Alice poems."
In a different way, though perhaps as amusing, is the Gelett Burgess
style of nonsense verse typified in his noble quatrain to the Purple
Cow:
"I never saw a purple cow,
I never hope to see one;
But this I'll tell you anyhow
I'd rather see than be one."
Some years ago the college humorous publications originated a
bloodthirsty conceit which touched the doings of Little Willie:
"Little Willie yesterday
When the baby went to play
Filled him full of kerosene.
Gee! but isn't Willie mean!"
Since then the murderous adventures of "Little Willie" have been
countless.
They are all cannibalistic but rather catchy.
The awful thing about nonsense verse is the very fine line that divides
a masterpiece from utter drivel. Nonsense verse is very good or very
bad. When it plays along the edges it is very pleasing but when it
oversteps it becomes rot.
_The Humorous Ballad_
A step higher in the ladder is the Humorous Ballad. The "Comic Ballad"
we have had with us from the days of Robin Hood, but W. S. Gilbert in
his "Bab Ballads" reached heights before his time unsuspected. By the
use of catchy stanzas and unusual rhymes he made the type a thing of
art. Most readers are familiar with the "Yarn of the Nancy Bell," in
which the solitary sailor sings:
"Oh, I am the cook and the captain bold
And the mate of the Nancy brig;
And the bos'n tight and the midshipmite
And the crew of the captain's gig."
Since the publication of the "Bab Ballads" a great deal of verse has
been produced along the same general lines. Mr. Wallace Irwin's
"Nautical Ballads of a Landsman" are the most notable additions of
recent years.
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