Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 64, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 March 1919 — Rule for Verse Writers. [ARTICLE]

Rule for Verse Writers.

Free verse, says a critic, is only a new way of printing rhythmic prose, such as that found In the Bible and In the serious writings of Thomas Brown and Robert Bacon. And as for printing It In verse form, William Blake produced verse whose effect to the eye Is much the same as that of the most modern “vers Mbrlst.” In some modern cases, however, It looks very much as if the poet were experimenting with the advice of Voltaire, who said to Helvetius: “Do you wish an Infallible rule for verso? Here It Is: See If your thought, as you have written it in verse, is beautiful in prose also.”