In reading poetry, you should not noticeably overstress the accented syllables, as you have been doing in scanning; but you should recognize the poet's art in order not to spoil the succession of sound waves that make poetry musical. Thus the study of rhythm will help you to read aloud well.

1 Used by the courtesy of Charles Scribner's Sons.

It will often help you also to get the meaning of a difficult passage. The poet has tried to fit his rhythm to his thought; so if you read his verses smoothly, you will be more likely to bring out his meaning.

And now that you know something of rhythm, you will like to try your own hand at making verses. You find it pretty hard to express your best thoughts clearly or to describe the most beautiful things you see in plain prose. Still many of you will like to. attempt a little serious verse. Others will surely want to write some nonsense rhymes or a school jingle of some kind.

Topics For Verses

You may get a hint for a poem from the following list of subjects:

A bird.

Autumn woods.

A song to cheer your athletic or debating team in some contest.

A school song.

A winter scene.

A flower.

Vacation joys.

Nonsense rhymes to please a child.

An acrostic.

Exercise 317. Patriotic Poems

Recite or sing a favorite patriotic poem and tell why you like it.