I've been known to attempt rhyme every now and then myself lol. Until I went on line a little over a year ago, here at neo, I would have said that No free verse is real poetry. I based this on the few free verse "poems" I had heard or read until then. And especially based on the obomination cited at Obama's inaguration. It mostly had all sounded like somebody either reading a magazine article or cussing out a neighbor and the only rhythm was accomplished by artificial pauses and accenting.This is where I was at the time. And when I read what was mostly posted here at that time, which was preponderantly free verse, I fully Expected to be attacked for using the old fashioned rhyming form which this beginner prefers. I WAS WRONG. I actually can't recall a single time that the form I chose to use was condemned. This suprised me so much that I decided to read some of this free verse stuff. A lot of it is/was crap. Just as a lot of rhyming stuff(including my own) is crap. But here and there appears a free verse which is magnificent in the beauty or emotion it delivers. Now I have found some subjects which I have found are actually better covered by Good free verse than Good rhyme.

But I still prefer doing most of my own writing in traditional rhyme(even though I Do attempt free verse every once in a while. I have come to discover that trying to be proficent in most forms leads to improvement in my chosen form.I think free verse will eventually be overshadowed by the metered forms and probably by the rhyming metered forms over the course of time. This belief is based on the simple fact that rhyme is easier to remember than free verse or poetic prose. I hope I've been here long enough now that people realize my preference has been mainly to what I write and that I Do appreciate most forms when done well.

Now excuse me as I dive for shelter 'cause I know that I have likely unintentionally offended Somebody lol......stan

Well, Wesley, if ever you quit writing your epic, you can make beaucoup bucks by being a satirist or political speech writer. (Are they different, I wonder?)

Love your voice, your humour and your honesty. To be sure all political messages (especially those with poetic undercurrents) are self-destructive, Mr. Phelps, should you accept your mission.

And did you hear my jaw dropping when I heard that *poem*. She must have written it because she had latent teaparty aspirations. The literary world winced.

~A

From WIki: The eve of the address was marked by heavy snow, but plans made to cancel the address were overridden.[2] After attending the Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Georgetown, Kennedy headed towards the U.S. Capitol building accompanied by President Dwight Eisenhower to the inaugural ceremony.[2]

Robert Frost attended the inaugural ceremonies, and brought a handwritten poem titled Dedication meant for the President. Although Frost had planned to read aloud a typed copy of the poem at the ceremonies, the sun glare reflecting off the heavy snow that fell the night before made it difficult to read.[11][12] Lyndon Johnson attempted to shield the glare with his top hat but this proved futile. Frost then recited by memory The Gift Outright, and handed the original handwritten version of Dedication to John and his wife Jacqueline, who framed the poem and wrote on the back: For Jack. First thing I had framed to be put in your office. First thing to be hung there.[11]

The Gift Outright by Robert Frost

The land was ours before we were the land's.
She was our land more than a hundred years
Before we were her people. She was ours
In Massachusetts, in Virginia,
But we were England's, still colonials,
Possessing what we still were unpossessed by,
Possessed by what we now no more possessed.
Something we were withholding made us weak
Until we found out that it was ourselves
We were withholding from our land of living,
And forthwith found salvation in surrender.
Such as we were we gave ourselves outright
(The deed of gift was many deeds of war)
To the land vaguely realizing westward,
But still unstoried, artless, unenhanced,
Such as she was, such as she would become.

Dedication by Robert Frost

Poetry by Robert Frost

Written in commemoration of John F. Kennedy's 1961 Inauguration

Dedication - The Complete Text

Summoning artists to participate
In the august occasions of the state
Seems something artists ought to celebrate.
Today is for my cause a day of days.
And his be poetry's old-fashioned praise
Who was the first to think of such a thing.
This verse that in acknowledgement I bring
Goes back to the beginning of the end
Of what had been for centuries the trend;
A turning point in modern history.
Colonial had been the thing to be
As long as the great issue was to see
What country'd be the one to dominate
By character, by tongue, by native trait,
The new world Christopher Columbus found.
The French, the Spanish, and the Dutch were downed
And counted out. Heroic deeds were done.
Elizabeth the First and England won.
Now came on a new order of the ages
That in the Latin of our founding sages
(Is it not written on the dollar bill
We carry in our purse and pocket still?)
God nodded his approval of as good.
So much those heroes knew and understood,
I mean the great four, Washington,
John Adams, Jefferson, and Madison
So much they saw as consecrated seers
They must have seen ahead what not appears,
They would bring empires down about our ears
And by the example of our Declaration
Make everybody want to be a nation.
And this is no aristocratic joke
At the expense of negligible folk.
We see how seriously the races swarm
In their attempts at sovereignty and form.
They are our wards we think to some extent
For the time being and with their consent,
To teach them how Democracy is meant.
"New order of the ages" did they say?
If it looks none too orderly today,
'Tis a confusion it was ours to start
So in it have to take courageous part.
No one of honest feeling would approve
A ruler who pretended not to love
A turbulence he had the better of.
Everyone knows the glory of the twain
Who gave America the aeroplane
To ride the whirlwind and the hurricane.
Some poor fool has been saying in his heart
Glory is out of date in life and art.
Our venture in revolution and outlawry
Has justified itself in freedom's story
Right down to now in glory upon glory.
Come fresh from an election like the last,
The greatest vote a people ever cast,
So close yet sure to be abided by,
It is no miracle our mood is high.
Courage is in the air in bracing whiffs
Better than all the stalemate an's and ifs.
There was the book of profile tales declaring
For the emboldened politicians daring
To break with followers when in the wrong,
A healthy independence of the throng,
A democratic form of right devine
To rule first answerable to high design.
There is a call to life a little sterner,
And braver for the earner, learner, yearner.
Less criticism of the field and court
And more preoccupation with the sport.
It makes the prophet in us all presage
The glory of a next Augustan age
Of a power leading from its strength and pride,
Of young amibition eager to be tried,
Firm in our free beliefs without dismay,
In any game the nations want to play.
A golden age of poetry and power
Of which this noonday's the beginning hour.

-Courtesy of the St. Lawrence University Archives

The Gift Outright

Poem recited instead by Robert Frost at the
1961 Inauguration

The land ws our before we were the land's.
She was our land more than a hundred years
Before we were her people. She was ours
In Massachusetts, in Virginia,
But we were England's, Still colonials,
Possessing what we still were unpossessed by,
Possessed by what we now no more possessed.
Something we were withholding from our land of living,
And forthwith found salvation in surrender.
Such as we were we gave ourselves outright
(The deed of gift was many deeds of war)
To the land vaguely; realizing westward,
But still unstoried, artless, unenhanced,
Such as she was, such as she would become.

Cheers, oh ye of little faith.

~Anna

and now can appreciate him! Would you walk openly at night without gaurded
escort? darked out SUV guzzling fuel? He spat in the eye of those who
did not question things and asked them to question..Lennon did not say This
is what you should consider This if what I am telling you to fucking do!
he was no cock on stage. He did not turn the gun on himself either like
so many did..troubled peoples My heart goes to them yes..No Lennon believed
in what he said and accepted that someone would come forth and take the literal shot at him..That is the true Revolutionary spirit!!! Lennon was True! He did not write this and that for popular consumption at all but for people willing to stand up and have their say and be heard... I admire him now and see that he truely was what he spoke about He WAS a revolutionary!
Viva la Lennon!

I like your blatant admonishing me.
Free Verse...
I always have said,
I ain't much of a poet,
Since birth
I crap and crack.LOL!

As long as someone laughs at my work,
I seem to have achieved my intention,
Of making one exercise 240 muscles,
Smiling at me

One may not lose many calories,
But a smile is worth its while.

Hope my dearest friend Jess,
Is peeing around the corner!

God Bless
Freer Verses...

this is much like the "covers" of songs on U tube
that people do.. some good and some not so good
but each interpretation and effort is a resulting
array and take on the original. Some of the affects
of this are astoundingly moving!

Thank You

partly with Anna, and partly with Wes. To me the intention of the way the poet wrote can not be changed, this is why I believe that the written lanuage is everything. the words the rythm and it's meter are everything on keeping how the poet wrote it. To me that is were you find the poets voice. so again the written is important if you want to get it across as a poet. I have heard many people butcher a perfectly good poem because of the infiction in their speaking voice. meter syllables and content to me is everything. at lease it's what i've learned here in four years, and still I have a long way to go. I find that some here are domesticated in their thinking. an open mind especially in poetry is everything.

Eddie
...

By the way a great piece of info for an unread writer as myself. Thank You!

Eddie
...

that's it for me too.

thank you, wow I think I am learning.

Eddie