Free verse seemed democratic because it offered freedom of access to writers. And those who disdained free verse would always be open to accusations of elitism, mandarinism. Open form was like common ground on which all might graze their cattle - it was not to be closed in by usurping landlords.

At somewhere around 10 syllables, the English poetic line is at its most relaxed and manageable.

My feeling is that poetry will wither on the vine if you don't regularly come back to the simplest fundamentals of the poem: rhythm, rhyme, simple subjects - love, death, war.

One problem we face comes from the lack of any agreed sense of how we should be working to train ourselves to write poetry.

Nobody really knows whether they are a poet. I knew I was interested from the age of 15.

Poetry carries its history within it, and it is oral in origin. Its transmission was oral.

In rap, as in most popular lyrics, a very low standard is set for rhyme; but this was not always the case with popular music.