The magazine, “Oxford Today”, recently ran an article criticizing modern poetry. It says, to summarize the argument, that too much modern blank verse is linguistically poverty-stricken and difficult to understand, sometimes incomprehensible. There are too many modern poets who are trying to excorcise the demons of their youth – at tedious length and in narcisistic fashion, showing themselves to be wrapped up in their own angst. The author says that poetry should be written so that it can be spoken out loud, and that every word and image should resonate with the audience (note: not declaimed in monotone, but spoken. Ed.). He mourns the loss of the rhyme. Rhyming makes the poet employ imagination, creativity and discipline of mind. In short, although he doesn’t use the words “sloppy” or “unprofessional”, the inference is that too many poets (not all,of course) get away with offering strings of glorious words, signifying nothing.

This is what wrote several years ago on the subject of rhyming and verse:

The Rhyme

Poets now despise the rhyme,
Or that’s the affectation.
But nonsense is as nonsense does
And what is worse than bad blank verse? –
Gibberish strung upon a line,
Conforming to the fashion?
The wish being father to the thought,
It’s promptly
Found
To be
Profound.

Rhymes outdated? That’s just rot!
Some can rhyme, and some can not.

It’s content, not the form, that counts,
And mastery of meaning.
A certain discipline of mind
Is requisite when using rhyme.
So don’t reject the tools at hand,
Misused as they may be.
The means can justify the end.
My point is penned.
Enough!
The End!