The best plan is to read aloud a considerable
quantity. Then the technical language of the books will lose its
terrors and the simplicity of construction of good poetry will become
apparent. If the student will read so much of this poetry that his
senses become responsive to its music, he will no longer need a
hand-book. For this purpose let him read such poems as can be sung,
chanted, or spoken to the ear; such as Macaulay's "Lays of Ancient
Rome," Scott's "Marmion," Browning's "Pied Piper" and "How They
Brought the Good News," Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade." Let
him read mainly for the senses rather than for the mind, getting the
reward in the quickening of life through the throbbing rhythms; then
the metrical system of poetry will become as real to him as the
rhythmic movements of the planets are to an astronomer. There is no
other way to get a feeling for the pulsations of poetry than through
this intimate acquaintance. Without this, months of reading of
amphibrachs and trochees and dactyls will not avail. It should be read
aloud as much as possible to make the swing of its verses perfectly
clear. When it sings to us as we read, it has begun to teach the
message of its rhythms.
Thus far the text-books have been pleasant companions, even when
unable to give as much aid to the student as he could wish; but the
fact will come to him at length that there is something more in poetry
than the hand-books permit him to consider.
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