Is Rhyming Poetry Obsolete?

[Wanton_Wordsmith]

Whenever I go to poetry slams, it seems that everyone recites free verse poetry. Rhyming poetry will get you booed off the stage. Why is this? Why has rhyme fallen out of favor? Why do today's poetry magazines seem to only accept free verse poetry? Any explanation is appreciated. Thank you!

[cathylambert]

I have noticed the same thing. Free verse seems to be the norm now, mainly because your thoughts can just pour out and you don't have to think of a word to rhyme. I honestly like both, I grew up with rhyming!

[dennisbeggs]

I agree, although rhyming is what started poetry I think that it evolved into what it has become. I v`e never been to a poetry slam before I would proabably like it. but back to the question I believe you can dive deeper with random feelings escaping from your soul in small fragmented bursts without the restrictions of trying to rhyme. which is proababily why it has caught on. and I learned that I cannot spell proabiably to save my life

[dennisbeggs]

I agree, although rhyming is what started poetry I think that it evolved into what it has become. I v`e never been to a poetry slam before I would proabably like it. but back to the question I believe you can dive deeper with random feelings escaping from your soul in small fragmented bursts without the restrictions of trying to rhyme. which is proababily why it has caught on. and I learned that I cannot spell proabiably to save my life

[DATo]

I don't know if it is obsolete but I am pretty much disgusted with modern poetry in which the meaning is so ambiguous that only the writer knows what the hell he or she is writing about. In the past much of the art of poetry was centered on rhyme, meter and imagery. Anyone who has read Poe's Annabelle Lee or The Bells realizes that they are reading the work of a literary genius; on the other hand, today we have a lot of pseudo - poets who, much like modern artists, smear any old crap on the canvas and expect us to consider it art. They are only eclipsed in their insipid banality by the critics who laud them with laurels.

[Wanton_Wordsmith]

I don't know if it is obsolete but I am pretty much disgusted with modern poetry in which the meaning is so ambiguous that only the writer knows what the hell he or she is writing about. In the past much of the art of poetry was centered on rhyme, meter and imagery. Anyone who has read Poe's Annabelle Lee or The Bells realizes that they are reading the work of a literary genius; on the other hand, today we have a lot of pseudo - poets who, much like modern artists, smear any old crap on the canvas and expect us to consider it art. They are only eclipsed in their insipid banality by the critics who laud them with laurels.

Thank You, DATO! You took the words right out of my word processor! I agree whole-heartily with you!
I mean, seriously! When I go to poetry slams, it just features some jerk ranting about how great they are, how we should all worship the ground they walk on and how Jesus is only a paltry second to the overblown "poet." It seems a lot of free verse poetry today involves a lot of bragging and self-aggrandizement; just like rap music. And a lot of cuss words. When Steven King was a kid, his mother told him not to swear because she said it was the "language of the ignorant."
I agree with Mrs. King!
And I agree with you that so much of today's poetry is just pretentious fluff. That's why I don't read any poetry journals anymore. Thanks for commenting!

[DATo]

Thank You, DATO! You took the words right out of my word processor! I agree whole-heartily with you! I mean, seriously! When I go to poetry slams, it just features some jerk ranting about how great they are, how we should all worship the ground they walk on and how Jesus is only a paltry second to the overblown "poet." It seems a lot of free verse poetry today involves a lot of bragging and self-aggrandizement; just like rap music. And a lot of cuss words. When Steven King was a kid, his mother told him not to swear because she said it was the "language of the ignorant."
I agree with Mrs. King! And I agree with you that so much of today's poetry is just pretentious fluff. That's why I don't read any poetry journals anymore. Thanks for commenting!

Thank YOU for the vote of confidence. I sometimes feel that I am the lone voice in the wilderness shouting, But the king has no clothes!.

I have often found, whether in art or other disciplines, that the more enigmatic the work appears the more it is considered a work of genius. The philosopher G. W. F. Hegel, who was lionized in his own time, is today pretty much considered a crank. A contemporary, Arthur Schopenhauer, had Hegel pegged from the outset ...

"If I were to say that the so-called philosophy of this fellow Hegel is a colossal piece of mystification which will yet provide posterity with an inexhaustible theme for laughter at our times, that it is a pseudo-philosophy paralyzing all mental powers, stifling all real thinking, and, by the most outrageous misuse of language, putting in its place the hollowest, most senseless, thoughtless, and, as is confirmed by its success, most stupefying verbiage, I should be quite right.

"Further, if I were to say that this summus philosophus [...] scribbled nonsense quite unlike any mortal before him, so that whoever could read his most eulogized work, the so-called Phenomenology of the Mind, without feeling as if he were in a madhouse, would qualify as an inmate for Bedlam, I should be no less right."

I feel that Schopenhauer's words could be applied to many of today's artists and poets as well.

[debbiebee]

I enjoy both rhyming and non-rhyming poetry, though I do like the latter to have some kind of rhythm. But perhaps we shouldn't forget that really old poetry, such as Beowulf, was actually written with alliteration rather than rhyme,

[debbiebee]

I enjoy both rhyming and non-rhyming poetry, though I do like the latter to have some kind of rhythm. But perhaps we shouldn't forget that really old poetry, such as Beowulf, was actually written with alliteration rather than rhyme,

[debbiebee]

I enjoy both rhyming and non-rhyming poetry, though I do like the latter to have some kind of rhythm. But perhaps we shouldn't forget that really old poetry, such as Beowulf, was actually written with alliteration rather than rhyme,

[rachel_tan]

Rhyme! I was recently introduced to Vikram Seth by a local poet during a workshop I attended recently. Brilliant stuff. It's not obsolete yet though it does seem that free verse seems to be king these days. I personally love sonnets. But am experimenting with haikus.

[sagarverma]

It seems it has fallen out but it matters in poetry styles to express and variations

[jchhiminey]

Rhyme! I was recently introduced to Vikram Seth by a local poet during a workshop I attended recently. Brilliant stuff. It's not obsolete yet though it does seem that free verse seems to be king these days. I personally love sonnets. But am experimenting with haikus.

I think you hit the nail on the head with this statement, at least for me.

[ksinev44]

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.

[CCtheBrave]

Honestly, I don't think rhyming adds very much to poetry. That being said, I do love me some alliteration! I think that trying to maintain rhyming within a poem can really limit your imagery, and it often hinders the author's creativity, instead of adding to it. But, I do think that there are some authors out there who can use rhyming successfully in modern literature. The trick is getting young readers to appreciate the craft of rhyming well, even if they don't personally enjoy it.