Why do they call it “free verse”, when it invariably costs a headache for author,
And anyone foolish enough to read it leaves himself wide
open to pain of one kind. or anauthor??
Then there’s the story of the Scot who dawdled into the
corner bookstore, and asked for a free verse volume;
The clerk kindly assured him only the Carnegie Library
carried that kind of verse, all serious-like and solume.
Surely enough, Just like any good story should turn out,
he found it in the Library,
Which should teach all good students of literature to be wary.
Especially of free verse.
In all the universe, no worse curse than free verse.
It’s poetry that failed to jell;
Or prose that’s mangled, hard to read, and sounds like a
word that with jell rhymes well.
Perverse, reverse verse!
Of all the dithery types of verse,
I hate free verse the merse.
It, I can scarce excuse:
I turn on it abuse.
I even curse
Free verse ……
by Ray Romine Tuesday, April 13, 1943