The Primary Pigment Of Poetry Is The

Use No Superfluous Word, No Adjective, Which Does Not Reveal Something. Don't Use Such An Expression As 'dim Land Of Peace.' It Dulls The Image. It Mixes An Abstraction With The Concrete. It Comes From The Writer's Not Realizing That The Natural Object Is Always The Adequate Symbol. Go In Fear Of Abstraction.

Objectivity And Again Objectivity, And Expression: No Hindside-before-ness, No Straddled Adjectives (as "addled Mosses Dank"), No Tennysonianness Of Speech; Nothing-nothing That You Couldn't, In Some Circumstance, In The Stress Of Some Emotion, Actually Say.

Better Mendacities Than The Classics In Paraphrase! Some Quick To Arm, Some For Adventure, Some From Fear Of Weakness, Some From Fear Of Censure, Some For Love Of Slaughter, In Imagination, Learning Later . . . Some In Fear, Learning Love Of Slaughter; Died Some, Pro Patria, Non "dulce" Non "et Decor" . Walked Eye-deep In Hell Believing In Old Men's Lies, The Unbelieving Came Home, Home To A Lie.

Rhythm Must Have Meaning.

Good Writers Are Those Who Keep The Language Efficient. That Is To Say, Keep It Accurate, Keep It Clear.