ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS

Ladies' Mirror, Volume I, Issue 3, 1 September 1922, Page 32

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS

[No MS. will be returned unless accompanied by stamps. No liability is undertaken re voluntary contributions. Name and full address must appear on the MS. itself.] - D.F., Epsom.—-Many thanks for kind wishes. Also for verses. The idea is well-expressed, but the lines do not scan. Have you studied metre? Take the line "The curtain is falling, the light leaves the stage.” This is prose. Verse is like music, unless the beat, or • accent, comes in the right place, it is not music. The chapter in metre at the end of text-boks of English grammar is worth some study. G. Vine, Devonport.—Verses lack power—merely pretty. A strong motive outside self and self-interest needed to give strength. The lines do not scan. F.E.T.—The thought is good in “The Mystic’s Song,” but the form is scarcely worthy of it. In the use of the recurring end rhyme a master’s hand is needed to avoid a commonplace effect. The repetition of the two first lines at the end of each verse is somewhat weak. The “Lullaby” is pleasing, and if “dark” in the first verse were altered to “night,” it would make a pretty song. D.M., Parnell.“An Evening Star” is a delightful story for children. It has promise of better work to come. Hope to use it later. “Imaginings” has promise, but is immature. M.E.R., Auckland.— Your sketch, “Mother-in-law,” is good as regards matter. The treatment requires a light touch, with a faintly !, genial humour to redeem it from prosiness. Otherwise quite interesting. Miranda, Hamilton. Verses show promise, but rhyme and metre are faulty. A careful study of metre will repay you wonderfully. It is a mistake to think that a correct form in verse comes by intuition. The poetic gift is born in the poet, but the right forms of expressing that gift require study. Try again. T.R.W., North Auckland. Your sketch is good. Have you tried to write word pictures of certain types of women? You ought to do some good work in this direction. V.S., Te Kuiti.— slight. Only when the writer feels deeply is her verse writing worth while. Read slowly and thoughtfully good books only." Think; study. If you are really anxious to do good work you must undergo patient and careful preparation. Why not take up a course of reading in history, Shakespeare’s plays and Robert Browning’s poems. Write again if I can assist you. V.P.S.—Regret sketches unsuitable. O.E.—Metre is not quite perfect. In “Usefulness” the first line in iambics is quite correct, but the regular beat is broken in “The song rang and re-echoed through the brain.” The last line is faulty also. “In Midsummer Day” the middle rhyme is not sufficiently marked to neutralise the ragged end rhyme, which leaves a prose effect, yet is not prose. Why not recast? A perusal of the rules of metre will illustrate what has been said above. The sonnet is good, but the first and sixth lines of the octave start with the wrong beat or accent. In the sestet—fourth line—“were it indeed so” after “ah!” would read better.