HINTS FOR BEGINNERS
For one whose verse runs easily and whose occasional sales are an
encouragement, this last chapter is perhaps unnecessary. Yet there may
come times in routine, monotonous production when even he loses in
interest, and with this loss his work falls off in quality. It is only
through interest and desire that anything has ever been accomplished,
and if these are not sustained the work must stay at a low level. Even
the seasoned writer must look forward to his work if he wishes to
improve.
For the beginner whose airy verse does not trip but rather lumbers, who
is unable to write anything worthy of sale and whose ideas refuse to be
crowded into the right number of feet, it might be an excellent thing
occasionally to drop all thought of pentameters and amphibrachs and go
back to the old-fashioned rhymed alphabet.
"A is for Ant
That lives in the ground,
B is for Bear--
A terror when found----"
and so on through the twenty-six harmless letters. It is an exercise in
ingenuity if nothing else and if the writer has any skill at drawing it
could be converted into a delightful gift for a five-year-old. Lear, the
author of the Nonsense books, did not think it beneath his dignity to
write six of these alphabets in varying stanza forms.
A little harder, but still not too hard, is the limerick, examples of
which are given in Chapter IX. As a gift, a series of illustrated
limericks on people you know would have the merit of novelty at least.
To see one's productions in print is always an incentive to better work.
The type is cheering even when its legibility reveals several faults
unnoticed in manuscript. Most small newspapers are glad to publish
fairly good verse when the poet is willing to let it go for nothing. Be
sure that rhyme and meter are correct and then send it in and let the
General Public stand from under.
If it is a lack of verse ideas that bothers you, try a drama. Write it
in blank verse and crowd the action with incidental songs. This is not
for publication, of course; not even to show your dearest friend, but
just for practice. Put in a troubadour if you like, or anything else a
romantic imagination may suggest, and let them sing themselves hoarse in
every scene. In this prosaic century you might not be able to write a
stirring love song, but if you become thoroughly identified with the
characters, your troubadour or your fair lady would be bound to get off
something creditable. The plot of the drama is a thing of no
consequence; it may have as much or as little as you choose. Write the
scenes as the mood strikes you and when you have lost interest think of
it only as an exercise.
Tennyson's "Maud" shows how a narrative poem may be treated in a series
of lyrics and suggests imitation. The German poets, as well as some
English writers, have song cycles, a series of poems all bearing on one
central theme. A pedestrian trip; the life of a bird couple; the coming
of winter, and innumerable other subjects lie close at hand suitable for
such treatment. Henley's city types and hospital sketches lead the way
for similar verses of things familiar to you.
Very often a line from a piece of prose or verse sticks in the memory.
Utilize the line by making it the refrain of a ballade or the ending of
some similar verse form. Browning composed his "Childe Roland to the
Dark Tower Came," around that single line taken from a song in "King
Lear." It is possible to go even further and with a stanza--say from
some Elizabethan song--construct about it the completed poem. Rossetti
has done this with one of Ophelia's songs in "Hamlet."
But keep up your interest and work for the love of working. There is
drudgery in the learning of anything, but with verse one can at least
make it interesting drudgery. Never give up; never be satisfied; and
with all English literature to rove in, don't stick in a rut.
Now a general summing up for the verse maker--a summing up that applies
just as much to painting or modeling as it does to verse writing.
Remember always that you are your own master and that your highest
development must always come from yourself. On all matters of taste you
are the court of last resort to decide for the hurt or betterment of
your soul. So it is necessary in the beginning to be just with yourself.
If your verses are not good, throw them away or rewrite them. If they
are good not only when written but after they have been laid aside for a
month; if the rhymes are true and the meter perfect; if the words run
naturally and clearly and embody a real idea, then you may be sure that
you have something worthy of editorial consideration at least. If the
idea is old and put in the form that has endured, lo! these many
generations--"love," "dove," "kiss," "bliss," very probably it will not
be accepted. When it comes back from five magazines be fair enough to
recognize that perhaps the fault lies with you and lay the masterpiece
away for another two months. Then examine it fair-mindedly and try to
see just where it falls short of perfection. But you must be you own
worst or rather best critic. Admit it when you are wrong and when you
are right hold your opinion against all comers.
You must decide whether to write much verse or little. Sometimes
improvement comes best with a great deal of carelessly constructed
stuff. Again a smaller and more carefully regulated output is better. As
a general thing, if your ear is correct and your verse comes easily, the
better way is to write little and write carefully, spending your time on
a few lines. If, however, your rhymes come hard and your expression is
not fluent, try a larger output not so carefully revised.
Analyze and imitate.
Make the mechanical construction correct. Two rhyming words with you
should be either good or bad; you should not recognize half-way rhymes.
If they are not worthy to be classed with the best, throw them out
utterly. Even in your exercises do not tolerate a false rhyme or a line
lacking in syllables.
Do not attempt too hard a thing at first. You will only be disappointed.
Do not write a ballade until you can write a limerick. Work up
gradually.
And you must not become discouraged. If you write day in and day out,
you are bound to improve, though the work of Wednesday be no better than
that of Tuesday or even of Saturday. Progress goes in jumps. Nine times
we fail and on the tenth trial we succeed.
We cannot all be artists but we can all be good workmen. And the better
we are able to handle our materials the better we shall be able, if it
is in us, to produce something worth while.
APPENDIX
APPENDIX
I
MARKET FOR VERSE
There is no market nowadays for the long poem except from writers of
established reputation. As a rule the shorter the verse the better its
chance of acceptance. Verse humorous is easier to dispose of than verse
serious because there is a wider field. _Puck_, _Judge_, _Life_, _Smart
Set_, _Ainslee's_, _Harper's_, _Century_, and an army of others are
always willing to buy really amusing verse.
Serious verse is sold in lesser quantities, but the price is
better--when the production is bought by a high-class publication. The
_Atlantic Monthly_ is always on the lookout for new writers and other
magazines are prompt to recognize what pleases them even in the work of
a newcomer. Perhaps the most standard popular forms of serious verse are
the sonnet and the short love lyric.
Many editors are glad to buy quatrains and even couplets to fill out a
page when a longer form would be rejected. The well-written triolet is
also sure of a hearing for this same reason.
Newspapers pay little or nothing for verse except when a special writer
is put on the staff to supply a column of verse a day. Occasionally some
topical stanza which agrees with the editorial policy will be accepted
from an outsider. It may be pointed out here that very often the humor
or appropriateness of a production will overbalance faults in the rhyme
and meter. In serious verse an exception of this sort will rarely be
found and a thing must stand or fall on its real merits.
There is no sure way to determine the market except by personal
investigation. Read the magazines till you find out where the editor's
preference lies and then try him with something of your own, written not
in imitation but on the same general lines. Do not send out your verse
in a hit-or-miss fashion. Separate the limericks and the love songs and
send them each to their appointed editor.
In spite of the protestations of interested publishers the reading
public does not interest itself in the volume of "collected poems." A
book of this sort is rarely looked at unless it runs very much out of
the ordinary or comes as the product of some well-known author.
II
SUGGESTIONS FOR READING
This is not intended in any way to be an exhaustive list. It merely
suggests the field which each student is bound to explore for himself.
TECHNIQUE OF VERSE.
The Rhymester--Tom Hood. Concise; with rhyming dictionary appendix.
Science of Verse--Sidney Lanier. Worth while for the advanced student.
--The Poetic Principle,
--Philosophy of Compensation,
--Rationale of Verse. Essays by Edgar Allan Poe; to be found in his
collected works. Very interesting as showing the methods and viewpoint
of a great poet.
COLLECTIONS OF POETRY.
Ward's English Poets. Four volumes ranging from Chaucer to Tennyson.
Oxford Book of English Verse. One large volume containing the work of
many of the living writers as well as selections from all the standard
poets.
--Victorian Anthology.
--American Anthology. Both compiled by Edmund Clarence Stedman. Valuable
because they contain examples of the best work of to-day's verse makers.
THE SONNET.
Examples of the sonnet are to be found in almost any collection of
verse. The older magazines, especially the _Atlantic Monthly_, use the
form continually. The best known sonnet series are:
Astrophel and Stella--Sir Philip Sidney.
Sonnets of Shakespeare.
House of Life--Rossetti.
Sonnets from the Portuguese--Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
FRENCH FORMS.
Examples are to be found in the collected poems of Austin Dobson, Andrew
Lang, W. E. Henley and H. C. Bunner, to mention only the more prominent.
The Ballade Book, edited by Gleeson White, Ex Libris Series, contains
examples of all the forms and is probably the most convenient collection
to be had.
THE SONG.
In this connection see Burns, Moore, Tennyson, together with Scotch
collections and the work of W. B. Yeats and other modern Irish writers.
For rhythm and a different sort of "song" see Kipling. The Vagabondia
Series by Bliss Carman and Richard Hovey are worth buying. Occasional
poems, falling under this head, are to be found in almost any volume of
the poets.
VERS DE SOCIETE.
About the best single book is a volume in the Leisure Hour Series
entitled "Vers de Societe." It gives an excellent idea of the field
covered. Among the strongest writers of this style of verse are Austin
Dobson, C. S. Calverley, Andrew Lang, W. M. Praed and H. C. Bunner.
Perhaps the best known English writer of to-day is Owen Seaman, whose
work appears weekly in _Punch_.
NONSENSE VERSE.
Mother Goose.
The Burgess Nonsense Book--Gelett Burgess.
A Nonsense Anthology--Carolyn Wells.
A Parody Anthology--Carolyn Wells.
HUMOROUS BALLADS.
Bab Ballads--W. S. Gilbert.
Grimm Tales Made Gay--Guy Wetmore Carryl.
Nautical Ballads of a Landsman--Wallace Irwin.
TRANSLATIONS.
It is difficult to quote any translator in particular who is worth
while. Most translators are not poets and most poets have not been
translators. The book of solid translation is generally very mediocre
and tiresome. Translations of the greatest foreign poets are to be found
in any fair-sized public library. Longfellow, Swinburne, Rossetti,
Dobson, Lang and a few others have left occasional translations which
are models of the best of this work.