The Anglo-American poet Thom Gunn complained about the "drab norm" of free verse. Is it time for poets to start experimenting with different verse forms or is free verse all we have these days?
by 
hijklmno
ANSWERS: 1
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I think a poet can write in any form he chooses. His or her success does not depend on the form he chooses, but on the quality his work has. I mostly read German poetry (my native tongue), and we do have poets that still write rhymed verse, and it can be very good. One of my favorites is the recently deceased Robert Gernhardt. I would propose a comparison with visual art: You could see rhymed verse as analogous to figuration and free or blank verse as analogous to abstraction. Both are possible forms of expression. The good thing about art (all genres, be it music, poetry, or visual art, or whatever else) is that there is no progress in the sense that something will be outdated by a new form. Good art never outdates, and in our time you can use any form you want.
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