Her pen she would caress and fondle <br />while most particular <br />that after straight lines, horizontal, <br />came perpendicular. <br />Of ideas there was not a lack, <br />they poured out of her head, <br />on horizontal lines the black, <br />while ones that crossed were red, <br />for money was in short supply <br />and paper, pens and ink, <br />and so she double-crossed to try <br />to write the thoughts she’d think. <br />“A little bit of ivory, <br />the finest writing brush, ” <br />she had, and left posterity <br />her microscopic touch. <br />With sensibility and sense, <br />not prejudice or pride, <br />she wrote while sitting on the fence, <br />her criss-cross script our guide. <br />Remember, though, when reading her, <br />how much her writing cost; <br />when puzzled by the black, refer <br />to red lines if you're lost, <br />for what a pleasure when you read, <br />believing you are lost in <br />black words, to find the words that bleed, <br />and flow red from Miss Austen. <br /> <br />Jane Austen used to save paper by writing horizontally in black ink and vertically in red. Richard Jenkyns has written a book about her called A Fine Brush on Ivory: An Appreciation of Jane Austen, whose title is based on her comment on her writing: ‘the little bit (two Inches wide) of Ivory on which I work with so fine a Brush, as produces little effect after much labor.’ <br /> <br /> <br /> 11/6/98 <br /><br />gershon hepner<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-little-bit-of-ivory/
