As someone who teaches a course on writing metrical poetry, I can say that I have had students for whom English was not their first language who have nevertheless done better than many of the native English speakers at writing poems in form. Yes, they sometimes have typical English as a Second Language problems with articles, for example, but the ones who write well in form know English well and--I think most importantly--have read widely in English poetry, something that is often not true of many of my American-born students.
Susan
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