On Rhyme in Poetry

ON RHYME IN POETRY

In our discussion group we deduced how some distrusted rhymes.

                        But I consider it a crime to excise rhyme from all lines.

                                   

                                                It isn’t that

                                                I reject

                                                Insight from

                                                Unrhymed verse.

                                                It is that

                                                I expect

                                                Delight from

                                                All lines first.

                                    Poetry is a pleasure palace of purity and pearl,

                                    A repository of risky phrase and repetition,

                                    A handsome home for honest homily, and the Holy Grail

                                    Of quests for meditative quality and soulful question,

                                    Down ancient alleyway of metaphor and allusion,

                                    Or avenue of allegory and alliteration.

                                    It is freedom

                                                            To       be     free.

                                    It’s this and that    and me      and you           and who

                                    Enjoys expression of the emotion

                                    Within that seethes and stirs and soars our soul.

                                    It should be said either plain or fancy,

                                    Whether in verse as blank as a brick wall

                                    Or as elaborate as a lace lattice

                                    Without fear on part of reader or of poet

For fear is the death of art and we all know it.