Illustration by John F. Campbell
I reject the unfettered letter. T'were better to be chained To this oar, though narrow, painful, And row, row, row, A bark-slave serving in darkness, Aiding a greater purpose. The steady oar strikes water Time after time, and time Is kept against the shoulder Of the sea, we are its master. Keep your flotsam free-man And float, to God knows where.
Dedicated to
, and the “Pamphlet War of ‘25”
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily . . . Life is but a dream, the original goes. Is that what you mean by "Aiding a greater purpose"?
Very nice, Tom! I'm of a similar mindset. Rhythm in my opinion doesn't have to come from an external source—I see nothing wrong with defining it within the piece itself—but some kind of rhythm has to be the underlying principle if we want the poem to work as well as it can.