Humdrum and Harum-Scarum explained

"Humdrum and Harum-Scarum: A Lecture on Free Verse" is an essay by the poet Robert Bridges, first published in November 1922 in both the North American Review and the London Mercury. In it Bridges explains what he regards as the 'adverse conditions' that free verse imposes upon a poet:

1. loss of carrying power
2. self-consciousness
3. same-ness of line structure
4. indetermination of subsidiary 'accent'

See also

• 1922 in poetry