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Shakespeare's Monkeys

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Rhyming quatrains serve their purpose, like all forms -- just not every purpose as the great illiterate mass of bleh would like us to believe. 

My reply to anyone who says they don't write form is usually:  you haven't given it a fair go.   Since the body of available forms is so massive, there's always one which will suit -- writing in just free verse is actually very limiting.  Form gives extra dimension to the words -- they work for a reason.  When they're done right, that is.  I've seen some pretty massive screwups.  

Eliot et al were very vocal about form being restricting and not allowing poetry to breathe.  Having read Eliot extensively -- and not to my pleasure -- I find that he, like most people who are anti-establishment, was more interested in setting up a new establishment to suit what he wanted.  If, by eschewing form, people genuinely believe they're breaking new ground... well, let's just say these are not writers that I would prefer to emulate. 

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by Leanne on Dec. 13 2007