[Julie Steiner]

It's a simple fact that far more people are interested in writing poetry than are interested in reading it. So when discussing practitioners of formal and free verse, I think a distinction should be made between poets whose work is likely to be read in respected journals, by people who actually care about reading contemporary poetry, and those poets who are simply churning out the type of poetry they personally like to write, who don't necessarily give a damn about what anyone else either writes or reads.

Most poetry editors' guidelines are directed at the latter, out of self-preservation.

I think it would be a great service to formalism if formalists could unite to combat the still-widespread notion that the sonnet is inherently "the highest form of poetry"--a superlative that, rather predictably, attracts narcissists who want to believe that writing the best poetry is a matter of conforming with some instantly recognizable, objective criterion, rather than on actually doing the work to evaluate what techniques are best suited for conveying a particular mood or concept, on a case-by-case basis.

And of course that is precisely why dethroning the sonnet as inherently "the highest form of poetry" is a pipe dream. Still, it should be obvious that
dutifully filling out the sonnet (or villanelle, ballade, etc.) template will not magically transform tedious observations and abstractions into something that stirs the soul.

Formalism is also burdened by an annoyingly conspicuous contingent of narcissists with persecution complexes, who specialize in rhymed and metered laments that editors won't publish their stuff due solely to prejudice against rhyme and meter. Generally, it's not difficult for the casual observer to come up with several other possible reasons for the rejections that these poets keep experiencing.

Of course, free verse has its share of narcissistic poets, too, who think that even their most pedestrian passing thoughts and feelings must be fascinating, simply because they sprang forth from Magnificent Moi. But just with regard to attitudes toward people who feel differently than themselves about using received forms, free verse practitioners' narcissism tends toward contempt and dismissiveness, rather than combativeness and self-pity. They make quick cracks about the shallowness of Hallmark card verse, and then they move on--probably because they are kept busy by the large number of other venues to which they can submit when they get rejected.

Practitioners of form are more likely than free verse practitioners to have difficulty getting published somewhere else after they've been told no by their top-tier picks. (What narcissist doesn't start with Poetry and The New Yorker and the like?) So formalists tend to be the only ones trotting out endless variations of the They've Done Me Wrong Song. And these are almost invariably characterized by a less-than-masterful use of rhyme and meter, which seems far more likely to reinforce prejudicial distaste for rhyme and meter than to demolish it.