I'm writing a longish ballad poem about a Beryl of magic Crystal—a story with, I hope, good emotions and surprises in it. To show you what the metre is, I'll copy the description of the Beryl. I had originally meant to intercept the stanzas with a running and very varied burden, but I found the poem was too long and intricate for such treatment, as the mind was overtaxed with a double current of ideas. However I copy one section of this proposed burden (I had written a good many such before discontinuing the idea), after the stanzas. The burden was to be used with one line after the couplet and one after the triplet of each stanza. Thus, either of the two specimens I copy would just suffice for the four stanzas I send. The burdens were to be distantly allusive to the story in a sort of gradually culminating way.

I copy two for variety.