What makes a poem great, or even good?
Technique? Its rhymed perfection? Length of line?
Its stanza pattern? Rhythm? –All these should
Be checked and double-checked in our design
Of course But these are quickly learned: What then?
Our answer is in every reader’s face
Who takes on eagerly a specimen,
But , frowning , drops the poem in its place
In favor of another. Now, he feels
A quiet thrill that works along his spine:
“This one was written for me. It reveals
My very soul- – I call this poem mine.”
To us, no matter how the critics rate
Our poem, if one reader thinks it greet!
by Ray Romine Friday, February 18, 1944
