Edward Johnston declared that the purpose of calligraphy was "To make good letters and arrange them well." The second part is almost more important than the first. In this design, I had to make dozens of small tweaks to help the eye read smoothly and to reinforce the meaning.
This poetry seemed to divide into two thoughts; calling to the beloved one, "my dove," who is hidden; and begging to see her lovely face and hear her sweet voice. I lettered one sentence in simple Bookhand and the other in Italic, in triangles that fit into a rectangle. Making the larger letters fit the space got easier when re-reading the text inspired me to make some small words fit into the "secret crevices of the cliff." I thought that "of the" and "in the" could appropriately be shoehorned into small spaces. Graphic custom has trained readers to read from top down and large letters first, so I trusted that starting at upper right would cue them not to read the lower left area with them. But just in case, I made sure the two sets of lines did not line up.
Even though I lettered the two blocks of text in two different styles and sizes, I felt there was still a chance that the reader might read straight across and get confused. Choosing two different ink colors added one more safeguard.
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