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POETA FIT, NON NASCITUR
"H ow shall I be a poet?
How shall I write in rhyme?
You told me once `the very wish
Partook of the sublime.`
Then tell me how! Don`t put me off
With your `another time`!" The old man smiled to see him,
To hear his sudden sally;
He liked the lad to speak his mind
Enthusiastically;
And thought "There`s no hum-drum in him,
Nor any shilly-shally." "And would you be a poet
Before you`ve been to school?
Ah, well! I hardly thought you
So absolute a fool.
First learn to be spasmodic -
A very simple rule. "For first you write a sentence,
And then you chop it small;
Then mix the bits, and sort them out
Just as they chance to fall:
The order of the phrases makes
No difference at all. `Then, if you`d be impressive,
Remember what I say,
That abstract qualities begin
With capitals alway:
The True, the Good, the Beautiful -
Those are the things that pay! "Next, when you are describing
A shape, or sound, or tint;
Don`t state the matter plainly,
But put it in a hint;
And learn to look at all things
With a sort of mental squint." "For instance, if I wished, Sir,
Of mutton-pies to tell,
Should I say `dreams of fleecy flocks
Pent in a wheaten cell`?"
"Why, yes," the old man said: "that phrase
Would answer very well. "Then fourthly, there are epithets
That suit with any word -
As well as Harvey`s Reading Sauce
With fish, or flesh, or bird -
Of these, `wild,` `lonely,` `weary,` `strange,`
Are much to be preferred." "And will it do, O will it do
To take them in a lump -
As `the wild man went his weary way
To a strange and lonely pump`?"
"Nay, nay! You must not hastily
To such conclusions jump. "Such epithets, like pepper,
Give zest to what you write;
And, if you strew them sparely,
They whet the appetite:
But if you lay them on too thick,
You spoil the matter quite! "Last, as to the arrangement:
Your reader, you should show him,
Must take what information he
Can get, and look for no im-
mature disclosure of the drift
And purpose of your poem. "Therefore, to test his patience -
How much he can endure -
Mention no places, names, or dates,
And evermore be sure
Throughout the poem to be found
Consistently obscure. "First fix upon the limit
To which it shall extend:
Then fill it up with `Padding`
(Beg some of any friend):
Your great SENSATION-STANZA
You place towards the end." "And what is a Sensation,
Grandfather, tell me, pray?
I think I never heard the word
So used before to-day:
Be kind enough to mention one
`EXEMPLI GRATIA.`" And the old man, looking sadly
Across the garden-lawn,
Where here and there a dew-drop
Yet glittered in the dawn,
Said "Go to the Adelphi,
And see the `Colleen Bawn.` `The word is due to Boucicault -
The theory is his,
Where Life becomes a Spasm,
And History a Whiz:
If that is not Sensation,
I don`t know what it is. "Now try your hand, ere Fancy
Have lost its present glow - "
"And then," his grandson added,
"We`ll publish it, you know:
Green cloth - gold-lettered at the back -
In duodecimo!" Then proudly smiled that old man
To see the eager lad
Rush madly for his pen and ink
And for his blotting-pad -
But, when he thought of PUBLISHING,
His face grew stern and sad.
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