Should this be branded on every newbie's writing hand?

[ellajam]

        "True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,
          As those move easiest who've learned to dance."
        - Alexander Pope


So even back then (early 1700's), poets were being irritated by newbies*.
Oh, what am I saying? I'm sure Neanderthal poets experienced this feeling as well.
And the Vikings... for all I know they actually employed branding. Though, considering
the Vikings' reputation and the tools readily to hand, as it were, they probably just cut
the damn hand off. Or, upon further consideration, and realizing the root of the problem
does not lie in the hand: the head.


* I realize that tarring all newbies (another Viking custom?) with the same brush is altogether
    unfair to the 1% who somehow mange to escape this pestiferous phase.

It's a lovely quote. I read and wrote hundreds of poems before starting to learn how best to do it. There are a scant handful there that hold up as opposed to the ones I've written and worked on since joining here that seem to stand up even when non-pigpenners read them. It's amazing what learning technique, and practicing how to use it, can get you.