Writing practice: write prose into blank verse, using imagery where you can
All quotes below are from Dracula:
“There is throughout no statement of past things wherein memory may err”: The echoes from all past events ring clear
[fine enough]
“for all the records chosen are exactly contemporary”: All echoed notes were played by authors’ hands
“given from the standpoints and within the range of knowledge of those who made them.”: Of songs well-versed, and hands most competent
[these are fine – this is what it takes, just put in a huge amount of practice creating verses like these. they won’t be great, but over months and years you’ll see real improvements, just like working out. just keep reading shakespeare to absorb his imagery, and then practice using it by creating blank verse for all kinds of prose]
“arriving at Vienna early next morning; should have arrived [sooner], but train was an hour late”: The metal snake slow-slithered me to Wien
“Buda-Pesth seems a wonderful place, from the glimpse which I got of it from the train and the little I could walk through the streets”: My glassy stones skipped brisk on Buda-Pesth, My toes I shallow dipped within her stream
[that turned out better than I thought it would, a rarity in my 49 years]
“I feared to go very far from the station, as we had arrived late and would start as near the correct time as possible”: The hands of time held back my wanderlust
[not bad]
“The impression I had was that we were leaving the West and entering the East”: Stage-left we strode against the circling sun
“the most western of splendid bridges over the Danube, which is here of noble width and depth”:
[i’ll work on this tmw]