The Curse of Free Verse
When normal folk wrote formal verse
I heard a poet say,
Beware a fast-approaching curse;
Free verse will soon hold sway.
All formal rules will be destroyed
And cause poetic blight.
Free verse is not the real Mc Coy
But it's easier to write.
I found its 'freedoms' so perverse
That I forbore to try it.
So I'm still writing formal verse
Though fewer folk now buy it.
Today free verse is just a joke
To those of us who know it's
Clearly made too many folk
Believe that they are poets.
(first appeared in The Spectator)