1863

POETA FIT, NON NASCITUR

by Lewis Carroll

POETA FIT, NON NASCITUR -

"HOW shall I be a poet?

How shall I write in rhyme:

You told me once 'the very wish

Partook of the sublime'.

Then tell me how! Don't put me off

With your 'another time'!" -

The old man smiled to see him,

To hear his sudden sally;

He liked the lad to speak his mind

Enthusiastically;

And thought "There's no hum-drum in him,

Nor any shilly-shally." -

"And would you be a poet

Before you've been to school?

Ah, well I hardly thought you

So absolute a fool.

First learn to be spasmodic-

A very simple rule. -

"For first you write a sentence,

And then you chop it small;

Then mix the bits, and sort them out

Just as they chance to fall:

The order of the phrases makes

No difference at all. -

"Then, if you'd be impressive,

Remember what I say,

That abstract qualities begin

With capitals alway:

The True, the Good, the Beautiful-

Those are the things that pay! -

"Next, when you are describing

A shape, or sound, or tint;

Don't state the matter plainly,

But put it in a hint;

And learn to look at all things

With a sort of mental squint." -

"For instance, if I wished, Sir,

Of mutton-pies to tell,

Should I say 'dreams of fleecy flocks

Pent in a wheaten cell'?"

"Why, yes," the old man said: "that phrase

Would answer very well. -

"Then fourthly, there are epithets

That suit with any word-

As well as Harvey's Reading Sauce

With fish, or flesh, or bird-

Of these, 'wild', 'lonely', 'weary', 'strange',

Are much to be preferred." -

"And will it do, O will it do

To take them in a lump-

As 'the wild man went his weary way

To a strange and lonely pump'?"

"Nay, nay! You must not hastily

To such conclusions jump. -

"Such epithets, like pepper,

Give zest to what you write;

And, if you strew them sparely,

They whet the appetite:

But if you lay them on too thick,

You spoil the matter quite! -

"Last, as to the arrangement:

Your reader, you should show him,

Must take what information he

Can get, and look for no im-

mature disclosure of the drift

And purpose of your poem. -

"Therefore, to test his patience-

How much he can endure-

Mention no places, names, or dates,

And evermore be sure

Throughout the poem to be found

Consistently obscure. -

"First fix upon the limit

To which it shall extend:

Then fill it up with 'Padding'

(Beg some of any friend):

Your great SENSATION-STANZA

You place towards the end." -

"And what is a Sensation,

Grandfather, tell me, pray?

I think I never heard the word

So used before to-day:

Be kind enough to mention one

'Exempli gratia'." -

And the old man, looking sadly