"What Every Verse Writer Hears" (1922)

"Writing verse must be a lot of fun—isn't it? All you fellows have to do is get a theme and then dash it off."

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"I used to write a lot of verse when I was in school—little things, you know, that just popped into my head, and I jotted them down. It never was any trouble to me."

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"I suppose when you have no ideas and are at a loss for something to say you just write a poem and let it go at that."

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"A fellow told me one time that it was a cinch to write verse when you found out how. He put down the rhymes at the ends of the lines first and filled in in front of them."

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All you have to do to write newspaper verse is to take some old favorite like 'The Raven' or 'Curfew Must Not Ring Tonight,' and change a few words here and there, isn't it?"

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I never could write two lines that rhymed myself, but I suppose, once a person has caught the trick of it, it's no trouble at all."

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Of course, you have to wait for an inscription. But when you've got the inspiration the mere mechanical part of it is easy enough, I presume."

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"Your work isn't like you were producing art requires intense labor, of course. But humorous verse isn't art, you know. The sort of thing you do should be a snap."

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"Some day I want to show you some things I've done. They aren't quite right, I know, but you could fix them up for me in five minutes without any trouble."

"I suppose you have a set of rules to go by in writing that kind of verse, and after you get the rules fixed in your mind the mere writing is quite simple."

"What Every Verse Writer Hears." Buffalo Evening News. December 30, 1922.