Is rhyming verse more difficult than free verse?

[Bob Pacey]

Gotta be a poem in there somewhere Neil.

Type in Bush Poetry in goggle and you will get poems about George Bush ?


I have been invited on many occassions to poetry writing groups to be involved in discussions about the different styles that we write and I have been always made welcome, I do not always get the time to attend but I find that most are intreagued by the fact that I take the time to learn and memorise poems to perform. Got one at the end of this month where we will all share out poetry and some their short stories.

The only odd looks I got was at a local function for the Art Gallery where I put my Akubra on to perform.


Perhaps it is because I'm so shy !

Robert

[Stephen Whiteside]

Neil, I can only hope that when you speak of 'expert opinions' you are not referring to me!

[manfredvijars]

If a picture paints a thousand words, then that's art ... but if a few words can paint a thousand pictures - that's POETRY ...

[Stephen Whiteside]

Not a bad way of looking at it, Manfred.

[warooa]

Ford v Holden

[David J Delaney]

Finding the Poet Within.

So you think you’re a poet spending all your time
just tinkering with free verse or some classic rhyme,
or maybe you like haiku, tanka, abc,
some sonnets, or Australian bush poetry.

Perhaps it’s in a couplet, stories you can tell
or could you like the challenge of a villanelle.
An epic might excite, but not an epigram,
might write a limerick while riding in a tram.

Iambic pentameter might just turn you on,
or can one narrative be like a marathon.
Then when you write a lyric, does it tug your heart,
and when you pen some lays, are they a piece of art?

Some idyll poetry depicts a country dream
or does romanticism want to make you scream.
With over 55 great forms of poetry,
to name them all right now is challenging for me.

Because there’s such a choice, why study only one
but learn the disciplines of how they are all done.
Appreciate the work in every single style,
attempt to write them all, becoming versatile.

And don’t stray from this path, one day you’ll make a choice
then find your worldly niche, your own poetic voice.
Some scholars try to push one form of poetry,
they won’t open their minds and let their thoughts be free.

So make sure you can read all of the books you can
on poets and their styles or where it all began.
And keep on learning and accept the discipline,
for one day you will find, the poet deep within.


David J Delaney ©

[Stephen Whiteside]

Fair enough, Dave, but I much prefer to take the opposite approach - read nothing at all about poetic technique, and make up my own forms and patterns.

[Zondrae]

G'day,
having said that..I'll go. No, only joking.

I note that all of the above, who have commented, have won many competitions with R&M verse. I hold David and Val, in high esteem. I have struggled for years to 'get' the metre, that is the positioning of stresses, in my writing. I agree that, sometimes, the restraints of metre can kill the 'soul' of a piece. As Stephen has said, editing and re-writing can do damage to a good piece of writing. However, having read many of David Campbell, Ellis Campbell, Veronica Weal and Glenny Palmer's poems, I can see that the true masters can do wonders, never losing the heart and soul of a poem, while keeping within the constraints (or discipline) of Rhyme and Metre.

Therein is the talent of a master, or a Champion if you will.