Chapter II: Nocturne (4)

Don't chop your stuff into separate _iambs_. Don't make each line stop dead at the end, and then begin every next line with a heave. Let the beginning of the next line catch the rise of the rhythm wave, unless you want a definite longish pause.

In short, behave as a musician, a good musician, when dealing with that phase of your art which has exact parallels in music. The same laws govern, and you are bound by no others.

Naturally, your rhythmic structure should not destroy the shape of your words, or their natural sound, or their meaning. It is improbable that, at the start, you will be able to get a rhythm-structure strong enough to affect them very much, though you may fall a victim to all sorts of false stopping due to line ends and caesurae.

The musician can rely on pitch and the volume of the orchestra. You can not. The term harmony is misapplied to poetry; it refers to simultaneous sounds of different pitch. There is, however, in the best verse a sort of residue of sound which remains in the ear of the hearer and acts more or less as an organ-base. A rhyme must have in it some slight element of surprise if it is to give pleasure; it need not be bizarre or curious, but it must be well used if used at all.

Vide further Vildrac and Duhamel's notes on rhyme in "_Technique Poetique_."

That part of your poetry which strikes upon the imaginative _eye_ of the reader will lose nothing by translation into a foreign tongue; that which appeals to the ear can reach only those who take it in the original.

Consider the definiteness of Dante's presentation, as compared with Milton's rhetoric. Read as much of Wordsworth as does not seem too unutterably dull.

If you want the gist of the matter go to Sappho, Catullus, Villon, Heine when he is in the vein, Gautier when he is not too frigid; or, if you have not the tongues, seek out the leisurely Chaucer. Good prose will do you no harm, and there is good discipline to be had by trying to write it.

Translation is likewise good training, if you find that your original matter "wobbles" when you try to rewrite it. The meaning of the poem to be translated can not "wobble."

If you are using a symmetrical form, don't put in what you want to say and then fill up the remaining vacuums with slush.

Don't mess up the perception of one sense by trying to define it in terms of another. This is usually only the result of being too lazy to find the exact word. To this clause there are possibly exceptions.

The first three simple proscriptions[D] will throw out nine-tenths of all the bad poetry now accepted as standard and classic; and will prevent you from many a crime of production.

" ... _Mais d'abord il faut etre un poete_," as MM. Duhamel and Vildrac have said at the end of their little book, "_Notes sur la Technique Poetique_"; but in an American one takes that at least for granted, otherwise why does one get born upon that august continent!

_Ezra Pound_

[Footnote D: Noted by Mr. Flint.]

NOTES

Agnes Lee (Mrs. Otto Freer) who has lived much in Boston, but is now a resident of Chicago, is known as the author of various books of poetry, the most representative, perhaps, being _The Border of the Lake_, published about two years ago by Sherman, French & Co. She has translated Gautier's _Emaux et Camees_ into English poetry; and has contributed to the magazines. Her long poem, _The Asphodel_, which appeared in _The North American Review_ several years ago, attracted wide attention.

Mr. Edmund Kemper Broadus is a member of the faculty of the University of Alberta, Canada.

Miss Fannie Stearns Davis is a young American who has written many songs and lyrics, a collection of which is to be published this spring. She was born in Cleveland, Ohio, but now lives in the East.

Mrs. Meynell, who is the wife of Mr. Wilfrid Meynell, editor of one of the leading English Catholic reviews, hardly needs an introduction in America, where her exquisite art is well known. Her small volumes of essays--_The Rhythm of Life_, _The Color of Life_, _The Children_, etc., and her _Poems_ are published by The John Lane Company.

Mr. Ridgely Torrence is the author of _El Dorado_, _A Tragedy_, _Abelard and Eloise_, a poetic drama, and _Rituals for The Events of Life_. He contributes infrequently to the magazines, several of his longer poems having never been republished. He lives in New York.

Mr. Samuel McCoy was born, thirty-one years ago, at Burlington, Iowa. He now lives at Indianapolis, and devotes himself wholly to literary work. He was educated at Princeton, and from 1906 to 1908 was associate editor of _The Reader_. A collection of Mr. McCoy's poems will be issued in book form this year by the Bobbs-Merrill Company.

Mr. Alfred Noyes, a young English poet, is a well known contributor to English and American magazines, and has published many books of poetry. _The Loom of Years_; _The Flower of Old Japan_; _Poems_; _The Forest of Wild Thyme_; _Drake, English An Epic_; _Forty Singing Seamen_, and _The Enchanted Island_ are among the titles of his published works; and a new volume, _The Tales of the Mermaid Tavern_, is to be published this spring by the Frederick A. Stokes Co.

Early numbers of Poetry will contain poems by John G. Neihardt, Ezra Pound, Harriet Monroe, William Carlos Williams, Allen Upward, and others.

BOOKS RECEIVED

_Songs of a Syrian Lover_, by Clinton Scollard. Elkin Mathews.
_Annatese of Song_, by George M. P. Baird. Privately Printed.
_Pearls of Thought, A Collection of Original Poems_,
by Samuel M. Fleishman. Privately Printed.
_The Summons of the King, A Play_, by Philip Becker Goetz.
The MacDowell Press.
_Drake, An English Epic_, by Alfred Noyes. Frederick A. Stokes Co.
_Sherwood, or Robin Hood and the Three Kings, A Play in Five Acts_,
by Alfred Noyes. Frederick A. Stokes Co.
_The Enchanted Island and Other Poems_, by Alfred Noyes.
Frederick A Stokes Co.
_Songs of the City_, by DeCamp Leland. The Westende Publishing Co.
_In Vivid Gardens_, by Marguerite Wilkinson. Sherman, French & Co.
_A Book of Verse_, by Alice Hathaway Cunningham.
Cochrane Publishing Co.
_Chilhowee, A Legend of the Great Smoky Mountains_,
by Henry V. Maxwell. Knoxville Printing Co.
_Sappho, And the Island of Lesbos_, by Mary Mills Patrick.
Houghton Mifflin Co.
_Harp of Milan_, by Sister M. Fidés Shepperson.
J. H. Yewdale & Sons.
_Two Legends, A Souvenir of Sodus Bay_, by Mrs. B. C. Rude.
Privately Printed.
_Moods_, by David M. Cory. The Poet Lore Co.
_Poems_, by Charles D. Platt. Charles D. Platt, Dover. New Jersey.
_Poems, Old and New_, by A. H. Beesly. Longmans, Green & Co.
_Paroles devant la Vie_, par Alexandre Mercereau. E. Figuière
_Alexandre Mercereau_, par Jean Metzinger. E. Figuiére, Paris.
_Anthologie-Critique_, par Florian-Parmentier.
Gastien-Serge, Paris.

PERIODICALS

_The Wild Hawk_, Hervey White. The Maverick Press,
Woodstock, N. Y.
_The Bibelot_, Thos. B. Mosher, Portland, Maine.
_The Idler_, Robert J. Shores, New York City.
_The Century_, New York City.
_The Forum_, New York City.
_The Conservator_, Horace Traubel, Philadelphia.
_The Nation_, New York City.
_The Poetry Review_, Harold Munro, London.
_The Poetry Review_ (New Series), Stephen Phillips, London.
_The Literary Digest_, New York City.
_Current Opinion_, New York City.
_The International_, New York City.
_The Dial_, Chicago.
_The Survey_, New York City.
_The Nation_, New York City.
_The Music News_, Chicago.
_Mercure de France_, 26 Rue de Condé, Paris.
_L'Effort Libre_, Galerie Vildrac, 11 Rue de Seine, Paris.
_Les Poétes_, E. Basset, 3 Rue Dante, Paris.
(This number devoted to poems selected from the work of
Nicolas Beauduin, _Paroxyste_.)
_L'Ile Sonnante_, 21 Rue Rousselet, Paris.

CONTENTS OF VOL. I

VERSE
PAGE

_Aldington, Richard_:
CHORIKOS 39
To a Greek Marble 42
Au Vieux Jardin 43

_Banning, Kendall_:
Love Songs of the Open Road 110

_Brink, Roscoe W._:
Helen Is Ill 117

_Broadus, Edmund Kemper_:
The Oracle 179
A Gargoyle on Notre Dame 179

_Bynner, Witter_:
Apollo Troubadour 150
One of the Crowd 153
Neighbors 155
The Hills of San José 156
Grieve Not for Beauty 156
The Mystic 157
Passing Near 158

_Campbell, Joseph_:
The Piper 33

_Conkling, Grace Hazard_:
Symphony of a Mexican Garden 11

_Cawein, Madison_:
Waste Land 104
My Lady of the Beeches 106

_Corbin, Alice_:
America 81
Symbols 82
The Star 82
Nodes 87

_Davis, Fannie Stearns_:
Profits 182
Two Songs of Conn the Fool 183
Storm Dance 186

_Dudley, Helen_:
To One Unknown 10

_Ficke, Arthur Davison_:
Poetry 1
Swinburne, An Elegy 137
To a Child--Twenty Years Hence 144
Portrait of an Old Woman 145
The Three Sisters 146
Among Shadows 147
A Watteau Melody 147

_Fitch, Anita_:
The Wayfarers 108
Les Cruels Amoureux 109

_H. D. "Imagiste"_:
Verses, Translations and Reflections from
"The Anthology" 118

_Lee, Agnes_:
The Silent House 173

_Lindsay, Nicholas Vachel_:
General Booth Enters into Heaven 101

_Long, Lily A._:
The Singing Place 47
Immured 49

_Lorimer, Emilia Stuart_:
Fish of the Flood 9

_McCoy, Samuel_:
Dirge for a Dead Admiral 187
Spring Song 189
A Sweetheart: Thompson Street 189
Off-shore Wind 190

_Meynell, Alice_:
Maternity 181

_Monroe, Harriet_:
Nogi 50

_Moody, William Vaughn_:
I Am the Woman 3

_Noyes, Alfred_:
The Hill Flowers 192

_Pound, Ezra_:
To Whistler, American 7
Middle-aged 8

_Reed, John_:
Sangar 71

_Rensselaer, Mrs. Schuyler Van_:
Under Two Windows 44

_Rhys, Ernest_:
A Song of Happiness 114

_Smith, Clark Ashton_:
Remembered Light 77
Sorrowing of Winds 78

_Sterling, George_:
A Legend of the Dove 75
At the Grand Cañon 76
Kindred 77

_Tagore, Rabindranath_:
Poems 84

_Torrence, Ridgely_:
Santa Barbara Beach 180

_Towne, Charles Hanson_:
Beyond the Stars 35

_Widdemer, Margaret_:
The Jester 51
The Beggars 52

_Wyatt, Edith_:
Sympathy 112

_Yeats, William Butler_:
The Mountain Tomb 67
To a Child Dancing upon the Shore 68
Fallen Majesty 68
Love and the Bird 69
The Realists 70

PROSE ARTICLES

As It Was, _H. M._, 19
On the Reading of Poetry, _E. W._, 22
The Motive of the Magazine, _H. M._, 26
Moody's Poems, _H. M._, 54
Bohemian Poetry, _Ezra Pound_, 57
"The Music of the Human Heart," _E. W._, 59
The Open Door, 62
A Perfect Return, _A. C. H._, 87
Tagore's Poems, _Ezra Pound_, 92

Reviews:
_The Poems of Rosamund Marriott Watson_, 94
_The Adventures of Young Maverick_, by Hervey White, 95
_The Iscariot_, by Eden Phillpotts, 96
_Interpretations_, by Zoë Akins, 97
_Lyrical Poems_, by Lucy Lyttelton, 97
Status Rerum, _Ezra Pound_, 123

Reviews:
_The Lyric Year_, 128
_The Human Fantasy_, and
_The Beloved Adventure_, by John Hall Wheelock, 131
_Poems and Ballads_, by Hermann Hagedorn, 132
_Uriel and Other Poems_, by Percy MacKaye, 133
_The Tragedy of Etarre_, by Rhys Carpenter, 133
_Gabriel_, by Isabelle Howe Fiske, 133
_The Unconquered Air_, by Florence Earle Coates, 133
_The Story of a Round House and Other Poems_,
by John Masefield, 160
_Présences_, by P. J. Jouve, 165

The Poetry Society of America,
_Jessie B. Rittenhouse_, 166
"That Mass of Dolts", 168
The Servian Epic, _H. M._, 195
Imagisme, _F. S. Flint_, 199
A Few Don'ts by an Imagiste, _Ezra Pound_, 202
Notes, 29,64,99,134,168,206

_Editor_ HARRIET MONROE

_Advisory Committee_ HENRY B. FULLER
EDITH WYATT
H. C. CHATFIELD-TAYLOR

_Foreign Correspondent_ EZRA POUND

_Administration Committee_ WILLIAM T. ABBOTT
CHARLES H. HAMIL

TO HAVE GREAT POETS THERE MUST
BE GREAT AUDIENCES TOO

_Whitman_

End of Project Gutenberg's Poetry: A Magazine of Verse, Volume I, by Various