me, let the lines then
be brought to a uniform indentation, and the reader disentangle the plan
of the verse as best he may.

In editing copy or reading proof for a poet, I always follow the
author's preference, if indicated, or if copy submitted is consistent;
but having the matter to determine, I would first look to see if the
sonnets were generally regular; and second, if the sextet (the last six
lines) followed the Italian or the best accepted English forms: this
done, it is easy to determine upon a style,--which would be the one
adopted at the present time by the best English and American printers
(as far as recent books of both countries give any clue), as follows:--

"What we miscall our life is Memory:
We walk upon a narrow path between
Two gulfs--what is to be, and what has been,
Led by a guide whose name is Destiny;
Beyond is sightless gloom and mystery,
From whose unfathomable depths we glean
Chaotic hopes and terrors, dimly-seen
Reflections of a past reality.

"Behind, pursuing through the twilight haze,
The phantom people of the past appear;
Hope, happiness and sorrow, fruitless strife,
And all the loved and lost of other days;
They crowd upon us closer year by year,
Till we as phantoms haunt some other life."

The octet, in the regular form of a sonnet, should stand as above; if
the sextet varies, but is not too irregular, vary the indentation of the
latter, as--

... "the great World-builder has designed
The wondrous plans which Nature's works disclose.
A child who scans the philosophic page
Of some profoundly meditative sage
May see familiar phrases,--then he knows
That his own simple thoughts and childish lore
Are part of the great scholar's mental store."

Should the sextet read as given below, instead of trying to follow the
seemingly hap-hazard rhymes with the setting in or out of lines, it
would be better to print the first eight lines uniformly even and the
sextet at the end to correspond with them:--

"Then human Grief found out her human heart,
And she was fain to go where pain is dumb;
So thou wert welcome, Angel dread to see,
And she fares onward with thee, willingly,
To dwell where no man loves, no lovers part,--
Thus Grief that is makes welcome Death to come."

In like manner, let any irregularity of the eight lines settle the
question of indentation, even though the latter