Can a poem with perfect rhyme and meter have a fatal flaw?

Gotta have heart and soul. You know that Elaine, and you know all the regulars in YAP know that.

Also, you have to break it up. If every poem you write consists of perfect meter and rhyme, where will the interest be for me the reader? I want to be challenged and surprised as well.

I disagree with the answers saying a poem can be "too perfect" or "mechanical sounding" when the rhyme and meter are perfect. Poetry is an art, and like all art forms, there are certain boundaries and expectations that set it apart from what is not art (assuming that some things are not art).

With too loose a definition, everything is poetry. Advertisements, text messages, sports announcements, movie scripts, even things like dance can all be considered forms of poetry.

For me, meter is a sort of mantra. Iambic tetrameter can practically send me into a trance state when done well enough. Look at "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." Robert Frost wasn't a big fan of perfect meter, but when he did it in that poem, the effect was an elevation of common language into the realm of high art.

The problem with perfect meter is that it's hard to pull off without forcing or distorting syntax and language. When people try to write like that, they often end up sounding archaic, which can ruin the reading experience of a poem.

But to answer your question, a poem with perfect rhyme and meter can (and is more likely to) be flawed in many ways. First, it must succeed in all of the challenges that come with any poem (content, meaning, language, tone, mood, technique) and second, it must use the meter and form correctly. Using anapestic tetrameter where you should have used iambic pentameter would result in a train wreck.

If a rhymed verse poem is "imperfect" in meter, the imperfections should create some kind of intended and appropriate effect. Two stressed syllables next to each other, for example, to create tension or emphasis. Two unstressed syllables next to each other to create rapidity and smoothness.

"Sainuvomoro's" comment about the teacher upsets me. I've met so many people who don't appreciate or understand the appeal of rhymed verse. They'll say that it all sounds like Dr. Seuss or like nursery rhymes. It's so belittling.

Perfect rhyme and meter do not make something a poem So the flaw can be as simple as having perfect rhyme and meter.

For example, almost everything "Mr. Blues" has ever written. Comes from having a mechanical muse.

It is the reason computers have not yet mastered poetry.

Rhyme and meter are DEVICES not poetry. Why don't you know this? Is that you fatal flaw or are you merely baiting us.

Possibly after reading others answers.

My total sum of knowledge on Poetry

can be limited to a single nano particle

stored on the pointy end of a pin

(A very small pin too).

How about a hook or chorus line that repeats

kind of like Poetry, but the fatal flaw remains

for those that look for faults instead of good points

so a happy optimist or an unhappy perfectionist.

You decide Elaine ?

Good Luck.

Best Wishes.

Mars Mission. (Earth).

14th Year Psychology Student.

4th Year Hypnotism Student.

4th Year Self Taught Music Student.

32 Years Qualified Automotive Technician.

Hi Elaine. I like your new avatar. The answer is yes. The poem may have perfect rhyme and meter but if it doesn't mean anything, then it's flawed. There are massive restrictions when writing in rhyme and meter. It takes time to produce a crafted poem in this form. You do not have the same restrictions when writing freeverse.

Of course it can. That's what makes rhyme and meter interesting; it's harder to get things right when you have these restrictions. If I can pen a piece with every word in the dictionary at my disposal, well, it's just a bigger arsenal. More bullets, more kill shots. Rhyme-and-meter pieces are the Geneva Convention of poetry.

That said, I like guerilla wordfare.

Edit: Upon seeing your comment to us, I comment back, because I think you might be speaking to me. I don't mean the poem is restricted or in any way lessened by rhyme and rhythm. It's the poet who is restricted. It's a voluntary restriction, but one that can make his or her work a good bit more challenging. But such a poem can go as deep or as high or as fast or as far as a free verse can. It's just harder, because one can't use every sibilance and syllable that comes to mind without considering their metric cost. Fewer shots, the hits have to be more perfect, to carry on my earlier metaphor.

I wish I knew. If I were to write a sonnet and post it here on AY....and it didn't have perfect meter and perfect rhyme....some-one would leap out of the bushes and jump on me....to point out my 'mistake'. Yet I know the great sonnet writers, such as WS, deviated from both if they felt the need.

When I am writing using iambic pentameter rhythm - often, my ear says a certain line is fine - but a check will show it deviates from the accepted da DUM....so, do I leave it...or 'correct' it...I wish I knew.

The only way I can think to overcome this is to print a disclaimer saying...

"I realise that line 4, verse 2 is not perfect...but, it is meant to be that way".

Is any flaw fatal?

Can't it have a minor mishap, a slip of the tongue, an embarrassing faux pas? What if its fly is down? What if its temperature is up?

How if, say, a large meteor strikes terra firma at a nearby locale?

And, worst case scenario, what if God messes with the poem? What then?

Yes, because the rhyme and meter of a formal poem is only one of several components. You must use ornaments inventively and have tropes ( metaphors, similes, synecdoche, metonymy, etc.) which make meaning. You might choose words whose sounds reflect the subject at hand, in the process subconsciously influencing the reader's cognitive machinery ("incarnational fallacy"), or you might choose words self-consciously for their etymological underpinnings (I do this often) or point to a specific balance of Anglo-Saxon or Latinate words. You might choose a form that itself adds to the meaning of the poem for the astute reader (I speak like a Russian formalist here). If you are knowledgeable about phonology and speech production, you might choose specific patterns / frequencies of liquids, nasals, affricates, etc. because you can influence the reader's sensory and perceptual machinery by doing so. All you have to do is read something like "Shakespeare's Metrical Art" (Wright) to realize that meaning is also made in part by the conscious choice of well timed "imperfections," which draw attention to the lines they "blemish." But you know all of this Elaine, so surely I am carrying coals to Newcastle... that is why I posted that Hopkins sonnet a while back; I wanted to choose something that was at once "imperfect" and "heavenly" (with no offense meant to Hopkins or other Jesuits). "Perfect rhyme and meter" is nice, to the extent that it exists, but if you have to choose it is more important to make meaning...

Edit: Pomposity is in the mind of the beholder, but accuracy is verifiable. By the way, "The True Dude" is Richard Brotbeck, who seems to have a vested interest in insulting anyone smarter than him, which is pretty much everyone.

Rhymes and meters are perfect and pleasant when the poems are being read and someone listens. But honestly, sometimes rhymes and meters can ruin the poem, like through being forced to use certain words just to make the lines rhyme. Most of the best poems sound stupid for not having rhymes and meters at all, yet, they are better.

rhyme and meter mostly kills the beauty of idea

those who write in rhyme and meter they can't maintain realism

rhyme and meter are technical and skilled things but even great poet could not maintain it

thus blank verse like poems got more fame

for me i would say

a poem must be fluent to read

it should have beating sounds

and smoothing and appealing aspect

the aspect that let you feel and make your mind run about a specific or certain idea

a work must attract the attention of reader or listener instead boring him / her

blessing

ghost from Pakistan