Is Rhyming Poetry Obsolete?

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F0CUS3D
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Re: Is Rhyming Poetry Obsolete?

Post by F0CUS3D »

I do not think that rhyming poetry is obsolete. I do agree that many poets now use free verse during slams and open mics but I think that is in an effort to be original. I believe it's moreso about the flow of the poem. Rhyming does not equal rhythm and during a performance if you are reciting a poem with rhymes in a monotone voice, it would be difficult to approval the audience's approval.
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Britt Love
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Post by Britt Love »

I wouldn't say that rhyming in poetry is obsolete. I write short stories, childrens books, as well as poetry. And it varies. Poetry for me is feeling, experience, a field of wild flowers as far as the eye could see. Its a mood and an attitude. However the author process and pictures it in their head is how its flows out on paper.
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Post by Insightsintobooks »

I think that poetry evolves. I know I started with writing poems that ryhmed but have since moved away from them.
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Post by greywalker »

To each, their own. I think there is room in poetry for both kinds. While I tend to prefer rhyming poetry, I do my best not to knock someone else's free verse. Surely there's room here for everyone? But unfortunately, rhyming poetry is considered "traditional," and for many people, this is the equation they see: "tradition=bad."
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Post by Maria joraimah »

I agree that free verse has overruled rhyming in this generation. Maybe some find it easier to express their thoughts into writing non-rhyming poetry. But rhyme or no rhyme, what is important is that readers can relate to your poem.
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Mashell Chapeyama
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Post by Mashell Chapeyama »

Rhyming poems are not obsolete, but they just require more refinements on the side of writers. However, too much attention on creating the rhymes may distract some poets to put forth the message. If all elements are well interwoven then they are appealing.
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Post by Ama Idim »

I like both but I feel rhyming poetry limits the poet's expression, that is, having to find a word that rhymes, may cause a deviation from what is meant
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Post by Cutienerdy21 »

For me, I like rhyme poetries better. I've read some modern ones ,some I understand but most of it just bored me and just forget it the next second. Reading rhyme poetries is much better and I I like it very much that some got stuck in my mind. Even now I remember lines from Tree , Where does love go when it dies and other poetries I've last read during elementary and high school. I forgot the name of the authors but their lines is still stuck in my mind.
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Post by Tsundoku-san »

ksinev44 wrote:I would argue that most of what is read at your average run-of-the-mill poetry slam is prose masquerading as poetry. Even free verse is supposed to have some type of constructional scheme, such as Walt Whitman's "I Hear America Singing". His poem is a grammatically parallel list. I doubt many of your poetry slammers are even aware that free verse or prose poetry, is still a form of poetry and requires a constructional system. If you want to read more about the different forms of poetry I recommend The Book of Forms by Lewis Putnam Turco. That is where I came to understand what the free verse poem is all about.

Most of the stuff in poetry slams is truncated prose (my term). What I mean is that the author simply takes a diary entry of their most random thoughts and arbitrarily decides where the line breaks are and then calls it a poem. Also, instead of the meaning being completely lost to the audience, most of what I hear is graphically obvious in a way that is disconcerting rather than awe-inspiring or wonder-inducing. I hear a lot of that confessional stuff where there is a blatant lack of innuendo, nuance or subtlety. I have gone to poetry slams and my poems usually contain rhyme. Some people have said that it is a crutch. How can rhyme be a crutch? It takes so much more skill to do rhyme and do it well than it is to just write random thoughts without any constraints of a constructional system. I mean, that is why they call poetry a craft or art, because it requires skill (or at least it used to). I can also tell that some people think that I'm out of date when I bring a form like a ballad or something like that. I guess I've established myself as an old crank.
I agree with you. Especially this part "most of what I hear is graphically obvious in a way that is disconcerting rather than awe-inspiring or wonder-inducing."
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Post by Angela Stripes »

Rebelpoet wrote:I think a lot of free verse has its own rhythm. I rhyme in my poetry without even realising. Personally I find a non rhyming poem quite odd.
Yes! Internal rhyme is really fun. I like how it can connect the flow between lines.

Though I agree with some opinions already expressed: so much of modern poetry is extremely cryptic (or depressing) and I miss the skill with language that was used and valued in other styles of poetry. I took a class recently, and we spent some time on poetry. I learned a lot, even though I won't adopt every technique in my own works.

I don't think anyone should be booed off stage for sharing their art, even if I struggle to find the value in it.
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Post by Amber Nichole »

DarthMom25 wrote:I think a lot of younger people see it as cliche. I personally find nothing cliche about it. I very much prefer metered poetry (rhyming or not) over free verse poetry. I agree completely with DATO. I don't like having to hunt for a meaning when I'm reading poetry. Sure, if you don't want to make the meaning completely obvious, don't, but (in my opinion) don't make your readers/listeners have to turn over each and every line to understand what you're getting at.
I would have to say I largely agree with this. When I was a little angsty poet in high school, I almost exclusively wrote in free-verse. I still tried to maintain some kind of rhythm, but I felt like I couldn't personally rhyme without the product of my efforts seeming tacky. That being said, I don't suppose I felt repulsed by rhymes, and I was absolutely in awe of sonnets; I just didn't have the skill to maintain traditional structures. I still liked to read more traditional poetry, though.

That being said, I also think some of the comments suggesting the preference is simply current popularity make valid points. Whether resulting in improvements or not, styles and interests change in artistic communities. The newer generation of artists hold some issue with the past generation's method, and the generation after that will regard their method in the same way, and such is the cycle. But overall, I don't think rhyming in poetry will ever be completely absent.
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Post by Fumes »

I don't think so, and rhyming and alliterations fall under rhythm and is all but suitable, if not, beautiful for Poetry. It simply is the beginning of poetry inciting music. Free verse too is surely as germane as the other forms already known and yet to be.
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Post by ReyvrexQuestor Reyes »

I was only emboldened to venture a word in this forum after reading the posts of Wanton_Wordsmith and DATo. I was really glad to find still Poets who liked rhymed poetry. I have not looked exhaustively enough, and I am quite optimistic that there are more others.

Is Rhyming Poetry Obsolete? I propose that this question is not worded correctly. Or rather, the question should rightly be: "Is there Poetry Without Rhyme?" Now, a parallel question may be posted in music: "Is there a song if without tune?" Or in the shooting gallery: "Is there marksmanship without hitting the target? " In the instances I mentioned, I would like to emphasize the importance of "rhyme" in poetry as tune or melody is to a song and as "hitting the target" is to marksmanship. To do otherwise is missing the target. (pun intended) I could still add more instances, say, "Is there basketball without the basket?" Or "fishing without the fish?" ( Oops, in fishing without the fish, this may be not a good case to use. Many have gone fishing without catching any, and called it fishing, and yet it could be said, the element of fish is on the water.)

During the time of the Golden Age of Painting, when the masters, the likes of Michaelangelo, Da Vinci and the others were on the peak of their skills, doing realistic depiction of things, there arouse a movement in Europe, called "Dadaism" which was dedicated to painting abstract. The style of Picasso was along this line.
Dadaism may be said as the style of those who can't do photo-like painting. At present time, the unrhymed poems may be said as similar to Dadaism of the past. I do not infer anything bad against it. But if that is the standard to which some has chosen to adhere to, they have the right to do so. I will fight to the death of Poetry to protect that right.
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Post by DustinPBrown »

Can I be a contrary voice here? I'm a poet, and I am not a very big fan of modern poetry that rhymes. Obviously I still love Emily Dickens and John Dalton and all those greats from before, and I'm extremely impressed by their skill in managing rhymes, meters, and content, but that's part of the problem.

When I read modern poetry that has strong rhyme and strict rhythms, it sounds sing-songy and not serious. Like, it distracts me from the images and the poem. I start paying more attention to the scheme than to what I'm actually reading.

Without rhyme, all you have are the pure sounds of the words and the emotions and images they evoke in you. Obviously rhyme and rhythm are very effective tools, and you'll find that most good modern poets still make use of rhyme and meter, they just don't restrict themselves to forms like we used to. They use them as tools for purposes, then move on to the next tool they need.

So it's not obsolete, it's just been downgraded a bit.
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Post by Salman Waheed »

Personally, I like rhyming poetry because it sounds more musical. Since every age has its own style of poetry, free verse is the style of this age.
If you follow W.W. then rhyme or no rhyme, it does not matter.
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