Also he will discover that it is not necessary to create a new stanza form in order to write a great poem. The sonnet, at which every poet has thrummed, still waits for a new master, and the “Recessional,” perhaps the greatest poem of the last quarter century, was written in one of the simplest and oldest of stanzas.
V
SUBTLETIES OF VERSIFICATION
CHAPTER V
SUBTLETIES OF VERSIFICATION
The more one writes the better he becomes acquainted with what might be called “the tricks of the trade.” These “tricks,” “helps,” or “devices” can be explained only in a general way. Most of them each verse maker must learn for himself, but there are some broader strokes which can be more easily traced and pointed out and which are governed by fixed rules.