Butler, Selena. “Chopin’s Melody.” “Young Authors’ Section: Poet’s Corner.” Winnipeg Free Press (4 Feb. 1939): 6.
Another contribution to the Winnipeg Free Press Young Authors’ Section, established to publish “contributions by young people from the age of 13 years and upwards.” A remarkable number of later-to-be well-known poets started their days in these pages.
Of this poem, “Poet’s Corner” editor W.E.I. comments that “[a] poem on Chopin’s Melody might be called second-hand inspiration, but it is after all a grand kind of second-hand inspiration. That is the title of a contribution by Selena Butler. Upon reading this poem by Selena, however, we see that it is not really second-hand inspiration at all but inspiration of the kind Keats got from listening to the Nightingale. The Nightingale originated its chant, but never put the melody into words, and Keats did. Chopin, in a similar way, originated the music of the theme Selena uses as her source of inspiration, but he never put it into words, and Selena did. We think this is a very fine way of getting poetic inspiration, and it all goes to show how almost numberless are the sources from which verse-writers may draw. We are sure Selena’s lines and their origin will breed bright ideas in the minds of many of the Page poets. Look how listening to Chopin has wrought a kind of beautiful television before Selena’s inward eye.”