Everyone knows, that the first man to liken a maiden to a rose
Was a poet (at least it is often contended so),
But the critics then go
On to say that those
Who continue to use such metaphor
Are second-rate, as it has all been said before
But has not the rhymer written about everything under the sun?
And if so, are we now not done
With rhyme?
For surely we should spend our time
Both day and night
In instructing others on how to write? …
I am linking to a post on “Rhyme”, in which I answer questions regarding my poetry and those writers who have exerted an influence on my work.
I appreciate that some of my readers are already familiar with this article. However, for those who are not, I hope my interview on Rhyme will be of interest to you, https://rhymepoetry.wordpress.com/2017/06/01/interview-with-kevin-morris/
“The Poet And The Workman” can be found in my collection of poetry, “Refractions”. Refractions is available from Amazon and can be found in the Kindle store here, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01L5UC2H2.
—
Poet: “Why do you dig a hole my good man?”
Workman: “Because I can,
While those who are not able
Sit at a table,
Wasting time
Trying to make their verses rhyme!”
Poet: “I have a plan
To make my lines scan.
Kindly move your van
And I will be on my way
To versify the livelong day”.
“Workman: Why bless my soul
This poet droll
So intent was he on his goal
Of writing verse,
That the man’s fallen into that there hole,
To be a rhymer is most perverse!”
Shall I compose
A poem about fingers and toes
Or write one more complex
So as to vex
My readers?
Yet who knows
For a poem about fingers and toes
May not be
What you see,
For dig down
And you may drown
In profundity,
Or not as the case may be!
I play with words
Which soar like birds
Or, like flat pancakes
Stick to ceilings
Evoking feelings of amusement
Or bemusement
But at the end of the day
One can clear the pancake away …
Some lakes
Are deep, while beneath the surface of others
We discover nought but a shallow puddle.
I was honoured to be interviewed by Victoria, for her excellent site Rhyme. My interview covers a variety of topics, including what inspires me to write poetry, together with those poets who have exerted an influence on my writing. To read the interview please visit https://rhymepoetry.wordpress.com/2017/06/01/interview-with-kevin-morris/.
It will not do
To force one’s foot into an ill fitting shoe.
Likewise it is a mistake
To make
Poems rhyme
Where no rhyme properly should be.
A couple of days ago, an acquaintance asked me whether poetry needs to rhyme. My response was that there is no necessity as regards the use of rhyming in poetry. Eliot’s The Wasteland springs to mind as a poem where free verse is employed throughout large portions of the work.
Most of my own poetry does utilise a rhyming scheme. I feel most comfortable expressing myself in rhyme. This does not, however mean that my poems rhyme throughout, (there is no point in sticking to a rigid rhyming scheme if by so doing the poet loses the sense of what he is trying to say. It is better to have a line which doesn’t rhyme than force one and thereby garble the essence of the poem).
I would, as always be interested in your views. Does poetry need to rhyme? And at what point does poetry become poetic prose or simple prose as opposed to poetry as it is usually construed?
Kevin
Should a poem conform
To some abstract
Form
Of rhyme and metre?
Trying to hard may defeat her.
The poet that is, who striving for perfection
Feels only dejection
And bangs her head
Until she sees red
Or shooting stars,
Which rhymes with cars,
But not a publishing contract,
that is a fact …
K Morris - Poet 