Complete Poetic Works, Volume 7

...you have cast forth a shapeless mass. If you squeeze it in too tight an embrace, you will suffocate the monkey original: "suffocabis simiam." This refers to an ancient proverb about a mother monkey who, through excessive affection, hugs her offspring to death. In this context, it refers to a poet ruining a poem through over-editing.. You will end up sending your friends verses that are beautiful corpses, anointed with myrrh. They are beautiful, yes, but they are corpses. They are wax dolls. Even if you move their hands with hidden skill and secret trickery so that the image is believed to be alive, there are still nostrils that smell death and rot. I hate poems that stink as much as two funerals.

XI. There are many who boast of the swiftness of their Muse The goddesses of inspiration. They race ahead of every moment of the hour with just as many meters. Nothing is more foul than these people. There are also those opposite in their efforts, who do not love their Muse unless they burden her with large gems like Zenobia The Queen of Palmyra who was famously led in a Roman triumph by Emperor Aurelian, bound in heavy gold chains and jewels.. they lead her, struggling and weighed down, in an Aurelian triumph. But do not antimony and white lead original: "stibium & cerussa," common ancient cosmetics used to whiten the face and darken the eyes., and a fearful mind, and a worn-out natural beauty, produce disgust? Certainly a poem corrected more severely than is right will be called harsh, not mature. It is not so much venerable for its weight as it is horrifying for its wrinkles.

XII. Therefore, it is better to cultivate beauty with a becoming neglect than to kill it with deceitful poison for the sake of an exact reflection in a mirror. Yet the Poet Vates: A poet-prophet inspired by the divine must strive so that the things he poured out are counted among the well-wrought works, and the things he labored over seem to have been poured out freely. In this way, he will draw the purest pleasure from both. He will often laugh at the judgments of those examining art and nature, who trouble themselves with empty guessing about the secret of the playful poet. He Alone must know by what weight or by what storm violent Nature pushed forth the Poem; and with what stubbornness difficult and severe Art licked it into shape original: "perlinxerit." This alludes to the ancient belief that bear cubs were born as formless lumps and were literally licked into their proper shape by their mothers. It serves here as a metaphor for the final polishing of a poem..

A decorative printer's ornament features symmetrical scrolls and flower patterns, ending in a central downward point.