"The unit of _vers libre_ is the strophe, not the line or the foot, as in regular meter. The strophe is a group of words which round themselves satisfactorily to the ear. In short poems this complete rounding may take place only at the end, making the poem a unit of a single movement, the lines serving only to give the slight up-and-down effect necessary to the voice when the poem is read aloud. "In longer poems the strophe may be a group of lines. Poetry being a spoken and not a written art, those not well versed in the various poetic forms will find it simpler to read _vers libre_ poems aloud, rather than to try to get their rhythm from the printed page. For people who are used only to the exact meters, the printed arrangement of a _vers libre_ poem is a confusing process. To a certain extent cadence is dependent upon quantity--long and short syllables being of peculiar importance. Words hurried over in reading are balanced by words on which the reader pauses. Remember, also, that _vers libre_ can be either rhymed or unrhymed." "One objection," I said, "that many critics bring up against unrhymed poetry is that it cannot be remembered." "I cannot see that that is of the slightest importance," Miss Lowell replied. "The music that we whistle when we come out of the theater is not the greatest music we have heard. "Zaccheus he Did climb a tree His Lord to see is easily remembered. But I refuse to think that it is great poetry. "The enemies of _vers libre_," she continued, "say that _vers libre_ is in no respect different from oratory. Now, there is a difference between the cadence of _vers libre_ and the cadence of oratory. Lincoln's Gettysburg address is not _vers libre_, it is rhythmical prose. At the prose end of cadence is rhythmical prose; at the verse end is _vers libre_. The difference is in the kind of cadence. "Recently a writer in _The Nation_ took some of Meredith's prose and made it into _vers libre_ poems which any poet would have been glad to write. Then he took some of my poems and turned them into prose, with a result which he was kind enough to call beautiful. He then pertinently asked what was the difference. "I might answer that there is no difference. Typography is not relevant to the discussion. Whether a thing is written as prose or as verse is immaterial. But if we would see the advantage which Meredith's imagination enjoyed in the freer forms of expression, we need only compare these lyrical passages from his prose works with his own metrical poetry." I asked Miss Lowell about the charge that the new poets are lacking in reverence for the great poets of the past. She believes that the charge is unfounded. Nevertheless, she believes that the new poets do well to take the New England group of writers less seriously than conservative critics would have them take them.