You’re Probably a Bad Poet

It’s easy to be a bad poet nowadays. All you have to do is “write what you feel” — and be sure that you break it up into lines. Since free verse poetry has come to dominate poetry in the last century, everyone has come to the conclusion that he or she can be a poet. If, in order to be considered a poet, you had to learn how to write in iambic pentameter and to use end rhyme and alliteration, not to mention using other rhythms, sound patterns, and poetic forms, there would be many fewer poets in the world — and far, far fewer bad poets as a result.