CHAPTER IX
TYPES OF MODERN VERSE
Vers de Société
Vers de société, “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 société; 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 société 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 société. 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.