Publisher's Synopsis
MR. JOHNS RISES TO PROTESTDear Miss Monroe: The charge of imitation is much easier to make than to refute, and perhaps an attempt at refutation is not only useless, but may indicate guilt itself. I take the chance and make the attempt with reference to Marion Strobel's otherwise appreciative and generous review of Black Branches. She says of one section in the book, Hedone, that the pieces are imitative of T. S. Eliot.The facts about "Hedone" are these: I. They were written before I saw a rhymed quatrain by T. S. Eliot. I have been familiar with his work for years, but not with his rhymed quatrains until recently.II. The first that I ever saw were published, I believe, a little over a year ago in the "Little Review." But at that time I was just finishing the series called "Hedone," which had been in course of composition for six months.The whole subject may be "nothing to write home about," as the sales-girl said, but a charge of conscious imitation is no joke-it rankles most intolerably in the mind of the pure and innocent object; and as the charge has twice appeared in print, I hereby have my say about it for once. If the reader will but consider for a moment, he will see, of course, that the spirit and purpose sustained throughout in my "Hedone" series could not possibly be the result of imitation. That sort of thing might occur in the case of a few lines, or a single idea, but so distinct an experiment would have to spring from its own root and energy. Orrick Johns.--As published in "Poetry," Vol. 15.
