06-01-2016, 11:14 AM
I do think using an old device, such as rhyme or meter, definitely makes a poem work more, as long as it's in the piece with purpose, whether to highlight its deliberately humorous/'anachronistic' nature, to give it a sense of fridge brilliance (in that the poem, if read aloud and without full consideration, sounds as if it were written in a more 'modern' diction -- see Leanne, I guess), or simply, in giving it a clear structure, to make it sound better. Lob it to a piece for the sake of itself, and it has a good chance of messing things up.
And again, old -- rhyme, meter, alliteration/assonance, etc, are obviously old things, but I think they can never be anachronistic in general, at least to any reader worth his salt: they're just too ingrained into the consciousness of the language. Think, say, cooking with fire, using salt for preservation and flavor: really old things, sure, but they'll never really go out of style -- in fact, they add a good deal of connectivity to a piece of food, tying them to tradition, to the greater continuity of English cuisine or even cuisine in general -- rather, a piece, English poetry, poetry in general. But yeah, never anachronistic -- at least until the poet means them to be, which I think only really works in humorous pieces.
And again, old -- rhyme, meter, alliteration/assonance, etc, are obviously old things, but I think they can never be anachronistic in general, at least to any reader worth his salt: they're just too ingrained into the consciousness of the language. Think, say, cooking with fire, using salt for preservation and flavor: really old things, sure, but they'll never really go out of style -- in fact, they add a good deal of connectivity to a piece of food, tying them to tradition, to the greater continuity of English cuisine or even cuisine in general -- rather, a piece, English poetry, poetry in general. But yeah, never anachronistic -- at least until the poet means them to be, which I think only really works in humorous pieces.