Every Man His Own Poet

Hearts, storms and literary reputations become kitchen ingredients in W. H. Mallock's comic guide to making poems. Its mock instructor explains how to assemble a love poem or a sentimental sea story before tackling the recognizable habits of Tennyson, Matthew Arnold and Browning. The marine recipe requires a hungry fisherman's family and a carefully staged storm, while the Arthurian epic depends on an absurdly controlled central figure.

Behind the cookery joke lies an argument about imitation and poetic fashion. Arnold's doubts and large abstractions become items to mix together; Browning's historical allusions and difficult phrasing become instructions for reducing clarity. The introduction extends the satire to contemporary claims of progress, presenting poetry as a skill supposedly available through tricks. Readers interested in literary criticism can see how the recipe form isolates repeatable effects and turns familiar ways of writing into objects of ridicule.