I found a children’s book of Robert Frost and graphed a few short poems. Each of these fit on a single sheet, though the crop was expanded in the computer and colors were tweaked.
“Questioning Faces” and “The Rose Family” are both public domain, but “The Secret Sits” remains under copyright (1936).
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Questioning Faces
The winter owl banked just in time to pass
And save herself from breaking window glass.
And her wings straining suddenly aspread
Caught color from the last of evening red
In a display of underdown and quill
To glassed-in children at the window sill.
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The Rose Family
The rose is a rose,
And was always a rose.
But the theory now goes
That the apple’s a rose,
And the pear is, and so’s
The plum, I suppose.
The dear only knows
What will next prove a rose.
You, of course, are a rose –
But were always a rose.
,
The Secret Sits
We dance round in a ring and suppose,
But the Secret sits in the middle and knows.
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For this session, I started with the Secret, using the 6.0mm Pilot Parallel with a 12mm x-height. I then dropped to 3.8mm for the Rose and then dropping to 2.4mm for Questioning, both using a 6mm x-height.
I’m fond of the huge contrast between thick and thin strokes with the bigger nib, but of course I need bigger paper if I was to do anything longer than an epigram.
I am really enjoying this kick of scribing the works of great poets. If I was solely focused on composing poems, these long hand case studies would be more effective without the distraction of calligraphy, but it’s better to do a suboptimal fun exercise than doing nothing.
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