Most of the poetry we publish in Stone Soup is free verse. Free verse is the most prose-like form of poetry. It is very popular amongst adult poets and it is also very common in American schools. Free verse may by rhymed or unrhymed. What defines it is that it is unmetered. Walt Whitman was the American poet who popularized the form. Here is an example by Whitman. This poem is called The Noisless Patient Spider. “A noiseless, patient spider, I mark’d, where, on a little promontory, it stood, isolated; Mark’d how, to explore the vacant, vast surrounding, It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself; Ever unreeling them—ever tirelessly speeding them. “And you, O my Soul, where you stand, Surrounded, surrounded, in measureless oceans of space, Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing,—seeking the spheres, to connect them; Till the bridge you will need, be form’d—till the ductile anchor hold; Till the gossamer thread you fling, catch somewhere, O my Soul. As free verse, Whitman is not constrained by meter or by rhyme. The poem consists of two grammatical sentences, one for each stanza. I’m not going to parse the poem here. If you are interested, look up the poem in Google Books. There are many commentaries. I’ll offer you this commentary on The Noiseless Patient Spider for those of you who want to delve further in the poem. For my purposes here, I will just say that by choosing free verse Whitman is able to focus on other things — to say things he couldn’t say if otherwise constrained by form. The language is poetic — .. “till the ductile anchor hold;/Till the gossamer thread you fling…” This is not prose. The great 20th-century American poet, Robert Frost, rejected this style of poetry for himself. Famously, in an 1935 speech at the Milton Academy he said, “Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down.” We at Stone Soup believe that this is a style that more easily lets children get someplace deep with their poems. If you want to think of it as Robert Frost did — then its a style of poetry that gives the young poet a handicap. It lets young poets focus on content and language but doesn’t impose an overly consisting of structured meter. Anyone with a free verse poem to share by a child is encouraged to do so in the comments.
Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists
Join the Stone Soup Social Media Team
Contact William Rubel: william@stonesoup.com Stone Soup was founded in 1973. Through our magazine, Stone Soup, and through anthologies of children’s writing, we are the leading publishers of children’s creative work for homes and schools. We are now tying to increase our social media presence in order to reach a broader audience for the children we publish. Stone Soup is looking for people interested in children’s creativity to join its social media team. Whether your interest is writing by children, children’s art, child composers, child photographers or filmmakers, or your interest is more in the pedagogical side of things, we invite you to share your passion under the Stone Soup banner. Blogging: We offer bloggers an opportunity to write and be heard. Whether you might blog once a month, once week, or every day, we can fit you in to our new blogging program. If you like to write and want to communicate with a larger audience, then consider blogging for Stone Soup. We are looking for teachers, homeschoolers, anyone who has something to say about child art education in the largest sense of the term. Your blog can provide a venue for publishing creative work by students and talking about it, YouTube videos, and more. You will also be free to promote your own work including other blogs you write for, books you’ve written, workshops you lead, etc. Twitter: What we are looking for a few people, each with focused interests, who will Tweet for Stone Soup at least a few times per week. As examples, if you are interested in child composers, we’d like you to Tweet child composers at the Stone Soup Twitter feed. If child filmmakers interest you, please search out information and Tweet it for Stone Soup. Teaching methods, great writing programs, writing by children that you find online and like, this and more is what we would like to be offering within the Stone Soup Twitter feed. Facebook: Facebook sits somewhere between Tweeting and Blogging. If the Facebook format is one that appeals to you, let us know when you get in touch. We are looking for people who will write Facebook posts that engage with our audience. If you you’d like to talk, please write to me, William Rubel, at william@stonesoup.com. Thank you.
A Touching Story by a Boy
Maybe you’ve noticed. Stone Soup publishes more writing by girls than by boys. This is not intentional. We would love to include an equal number of contributions by boys and girls in every issue. We can think of two reasons for the imbalance: 1) we receive more submissions from girls than from boys, and 2) many of the stories we receive by boys contain violence, which makes them inappropriate for Stone Soup. However, we do get some great writing by boys on themes that are appropriate for Stone Soup. This month’s featured story (July/August 2015 issue), Grandpa and the Chicken Coop, is a good example. Eleven-year-old Jack Zimmerman, who lives in New York City, is happiest when he is with his grandfather and they are building something together. But Grandpa lives in California and the two don’t get to see each other very often. Jack envies his cousin Logan, who lives closer to Grandpa. The story takes place during the summer after third grade, when at last Jack gets to visit Grandpa, and the two have a grand time building a chicken coop together. But that’s not what the story is really about. Over and over we learn how much Jack loves Grandpa, and why. “My grandpa is so great and does everything I like to do, and for that reason I love him so much,” says Jack, after a phone call with Grandpa that leaves him feeling sad that they are so far apart. Then, when the two finally get together and spend the day building the chicken coop, Jack realizes something: “Each time I would make a mistake he would correct me and teach me how to do it right. That was what I loved most about him during this project.” At the end of their perfect day, Jack gets to tell Grandpa how he feels: “Oh, Grandpa. I love you so much.” Jack is not afraid to express his feelings, and the result is a very touching story about the love between a boy and his grandfather. Not all boys (or girls, for that matter) would feel comfortable expressing these strong feelings. Maybe, like Jack, you have a family story you’d like to share with our readers. Or maybe you’re into fantasy, science fiction, or historical fiction. If your story has a strong plot, believable characters, and colorful descriptions, it is a good candidate for publication in Stone Soup. So, all you boys out there, get busy! We want to publish your work! Take the extra steps to polish your story by reading it over a few times, adding more detail where you think it’s needed and cutting any boring parts you find. No matter what genre you choose, base your characters on people you know, so their thoughts, feelings, and language are realistic. Use settings you’re familiar with, so you can capture the look, feel, and smell of a place. If you need to, ask your parents for help getting your story ready to send to Stone Soup, following our contributors’ guidelines. We’re eager to hear from you!
