John, thanks for those links. I need to read both more carefully, but on a quick read I've enjoyed the essay on "Nothing Gold Can Stay" tremendously, both for its own insights and for the chance to smile again at that lovely poem, one that's in my brain's permanent collection.
Andrew, thanks for clarifying further. As I think about the reasons various people have mentioned here for the dislike of rhyme, it seems to me that different groups probably have different reasons. I can't substantiate any of this, but it seems to me that
(1)folks with minimal literary education are the ones who remain in their original, childlike love of rhyme,
(2) folks with only lit-survey exposure to poetry, who stopped reading it with their last required humanities credit, mistakenly believe they're supposed have gone beyond it, and
(3)folks with advanced exposure to creative writing programs will have
(i) been warned not to attempt rhyme because their first efforts at it have all the flaws Michael mentions above, or
(ii) have been exposed to the critical theories Mark describes, or
(iii)both. Unless they have teachers like David, of course.
The would-be authors of children's books that Roger refers to fall, I think, in group (1), while editors of poetry journals are more likely to be in group (3).
What am I leaving out? And what might solutions look like?
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