To Rhyme or not to Rhyme

I thought this monkey looked sufficiently baffled to use for this poem. Photo courtesy: my husband, @ntarunkumar

There are some who won’t stand a rhyme

They denounce it as (literary) crime.

“What’s your kick with rhyme?,” you ask.

“It makes things contrived,” they say, candid, with no mask.

You argue, “Rhyme adds flavour

It shows the poet as clever

A rhyme can pack a punch

To give it up is a wrench

Rhyme serves as anchor

Against it, why entertain rancour?”

The antagonists retort, “The lines sound forced and so turn out silly

Rhyme waters the subject and leaves it pell-melly.”

And they go rigid all at once

Realising they have made a rhyme, they turn tense.

“Oh wait, Silly—Pell-melly. That sure is a rhyme neat!

You must admit, this sort of word play is hard to beat.”

“Oh sure,” you respond and away you go

Nettled and sour, you realise it’s all about ego

“When they churn out a rhyme, it sounds charming

But, coming from another, it sounds alarming?!

‘To rhyme or not to rhyme’ is everyone’s prerogative

And to be sure, a rhyme is no pejorative!”

Well, there the matter ends

You square your shoulders—and a rhyme it portends…