Dear Editor,
There are no primers or handbooks for poets. They are few in number but will find their way. The poetical are infinitely more numerous than any but print editors suspect.
The textbooks on prosody, once they’ve explained the nature of quantity, meter, and rhyme, are of no value. The elaborate treatments given to rhythm, especially the syllabic rhythm of English, are difficult, analytic, and not written for poets. They are to be consigned to the bookshelf, not the writing of poetry. Poetry doesn’t flow from analysis, science does. Poetry springs from observation, inspiration, life experiences.