[Janet Kenny]

Originally posted by Michael Cantor:
My guess would be that rhyme-hating derives from the fact that - while much of the very best poetry is written in rhyme - so is much of the very worst, almost all of the dreary Hallmark stuff, web site after cloying web site of heart-and-flowers dreck, etc. and etc.

When somebody starts out to write in form, and what emerges botches the meter (and is consquently far more assaultive to the ear than bad free verse), is built on awful rhymes, flies up its own asshole with rhyme-driven inversions, pads in every line to force the meter, and focuses on simplistic themes - puppies are cute, kittens are cuter, spring is coming - it does a massive disservice to rhyme and meter.

I have a strong sense - this is instinct: I can't prove it, and would be interested in other opinions - that most neophytes and truly world-class bad poets write in rhyme. Quincy's DWA site has a long thread, for example, on the Worst Poem Ever Written, and virtually everything cited is rhymed. This has to rub off on people. When I listen to people and editors who "hate" rhyme what I believe I hear is a built-in prejudice against rhyme because of so much exposure to mediocre rhymed poetry, not through any sense of an inability to "hear" or "appreciate" rhyme.

Michael,
Allow me to pour a little friendly fury on your words here.

All bad music uses the same scale that good music uses. That proves what precisely? That we are mired in snobbery and fear of being confused in the minds of the tone deaf with bad music/poetry?

So primitive naturals sing the diatonic scale. That shouldn't drive us off to twelve-tone music as we cover our ears in fear of thirds and sixths.

All the tunes that drive me mad and infect my brain against my will are in the diatonic scale. So is Beethoven. So is Bach.

Women have been ill treated by men for centuries but most women know the difference between good sex and exploitation.

Any editor who is so atrophied or undeveloped as to be still affected by such things is a pea-brained moron.

Can it be that the talentless have managed to take over since they are in the majority?

Just for the sake of argument.
Janet

PS: Andrew, those Dante rhymes make me realise how Italianate John Whitworth's rhymes are. Thanks for posting them. A shame you can't say them. The sound is important and non-Italian speakers won't get the wonderful matching sounds.



[This message has been edited by Janet Kenny (edited January 14, 2008).]