Maryann,
I made that statement about "plain ol' readers of poetry" too off-the-cuff. Of course lots of readers of poetry like rhyme. But my impression has been that the associations with rhyme we've talked about--"outdated," "sticks out too much," "colonialist," etc.--are also held by some or even many people who don't write poetry much or at all.
I'm thinking of people in my life--in-laws, friends, friends of friends. I'm quite certain that they feel a bit leery of rhyme in a contemporary poem ("hate" would be too strong a word, since they don't give poetry much thought, period). They're more comfortable with free verse, it's more on their radar, is all.
Unless the poetry is hip-hop or some other popular form--interestingly, that changes the picture.
On the other hand, even those sing-song rhymers at Hallmark have relented, offering a host of mawkish sentiment now in free verse greetings (as well as the rhymed ones).
David's statistic heartens me. I'm happy to hear that so many students bring rhymed poems as samples of what they like.
Writing this, I now realize what I meant: it's not "plain ol' readers of poetry" that aren't comfortable with rhyme in the way I describe; it's people who neither read nor write it. My experience has been that they tune in more easily to free verse--when they pay any attention to poetry at all. I assume that this is only because free verse is what they're used to thinking of as contemporary.
Andrew
|