Syracuse Scholar (1979-1991) Volume 8 Issue 1 Syracuse Scholar Spring 1987 Article 2 5-15-1987 Letters Mingle Soules Ben Howard Follow this and additional works at: https://surface.syr.edu/suscholar Recommended Citation Howard, Ben (1987) "Letters Mingle Soules," Syracuse Scholar (1979-1991): Vol. 8 : Iss. 1 , Article 2. Available at: https://surface.syr.edu/suscholar/vol8/iss1/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by SURFACE. It has been accepted for inclusion in Syracuse Scholar (1979-1991) by an authorized editor of SURFACE. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Howard: Letters Mingle Soules Letters Mingle Soules Si1; mure than kisses) letters mingle Soules; Fm; thus friends absent speake. -Donne, "To Sir Henry Wotton" BEN HOWARD EW LITERARY FORMS are more inviting than the familiar IF letter. And few can claim a more enduring appeal than that imi tation of personal correspondence, the letter in verse. Over the centu ries, whether its author has been Horace or Ovid, Dryden or Pope, Auden or Richard Howard, the verse letter has offered a rare mixture of dignity and familiarity, uniting graceful talk with intimate revela tion. The arresting immediacy of the classic verse epistles-Pope's to Arbuthnot, Jonson's to Sackville, Donne's to Watton-derives in part from their authors' distinctive voices. But it is also a quality intrinsic to the genre. More than other modes, the verse letter can readily com bine the polished phrase and the improvised excursus, the studied speech and the wayward meditation. The richness of the epistolary tradition has not been lost on con temporary poets.