Some thoughts on poetry and bad writers

Why do some people seem to think that making their writing rhyme automatically makes it better?

Rhyming itself is easy, but scansion, rhythm and flow are not. In my opinion it is far, far harder to write rhyming poetry well than non-rhyming poetry or prose.

Rhyming doesn’t lend weight, impact or intelligence. Far more often it just makes what you’re writing sound trite, especially when your subject matter is sentimental or emotional.

In other words, unless you’re very, very good at it, don’t write rhyming poetry. It won’t do you any favours.