meter v rhythm

[milo]

is there one of the two which is more important, or are they symbiotically connected? and if you mention meter,  the rhythm side of it would be a given?

I don't know if I really have a good answer to that question but I do like the discussion.

There is a rhythm to the seasons that people follow even though it is inconsistent in the present and it is felt through the accumulation of years so when you read the poems of Ray Heinrich that feature many of these cycles of humanity you will feel the rhythms in them even though they lack the precision of meter.  This is using rhythm to emulate or even to sympathize with the metaphor and it can be very effective in a way that meter would not be.

When Philip Larkin writes, he tends toward perfect meter and frequently sets the mathematical precision as a false dichotomy with the failings of man on an individual level.  This metaphor is beautiful because individual failings and tragedy against the almost god like potential for mathematical perfection is the post modern backdrop of humanity - especially in post-war Britain.

Anyway, if I am not being clear, i think that rhythm appeals to the organic or natural cycles or metaphors while meter appeals to the intellectual or mathematical cycles and metaphors and, not that one would tend toward natural rhythm for a natural poem in a strict sense but more that one can use the subconscious sense of it to underpin a poem.