maybe can work on bettering my rhyme blog so it accurate and effective. It that is possible

I believe it will always have a place in poetry, but
I also feel it does limit originality and vocabulary while
making much of it sound like "mary had a little lamb"
I do like rhyme but free verse gives a poet more options
and besides, if any of you are interested, there are virtually
no reputable publishers accepting any rhyming poetry, not that
that is #1 on most poets list, it is a choice, a preference, and the
battle for who's best suited for poetry has been going on for some
time, but the truth be known, it's all poetry.

Reading the objectives of this workshop and the value addition it will bring to the participants has stimulated my interest...my present work commitments may not allow me to fully commit myself to participation...but i now know it will be hard for me to keep away from it for long spells of time...to read..learn..absorb and critic...

Rhyme is historically important, imo, but relatively unimportant to modern poetry, as evidenced by Richard's observation that no major poetry publishers accept rhyming poetry.
Also, notice that good poetry, such as that of Rilke or Kabir, translates well into other languages, and is still consideredto be good poetry, even though it no longer rhymesthe way it did in its original form.
But, now I think on it, is rhyme unimportant today simply because poetry publishers don't want it? Is the reason for it's decline in importance monetary? An interesting thought.
I think rhyme is still important in two areas: first, as a teaching aide, and secondly, as a compliment to free verse, where selected lines of the poem can have far more impact if they rhyme, while the body of the poem does not.
As a teaching tool, rhyme forces poets to think more carefully about what they want to say, and how to say it. Creating good rhyming poetry is not easy, imo, and its inherent limitations force the poet to work within certain constraints of structure and pattern. I think that this is a good thing, as it makes the poet stretch her or his skills, and thus adds to them.

As a compliment to free verse, I often find myself using a rhyme at or towards the end of a poem. I find it focuses meaning, emotion, and the reader's mind, and thus makes the piece more memorable.

"Rhymes, meters, stanza forms, etc., are like servants. If the master is fair enough to win their affection and firm enough to command their respect, the result is an orderly happy household. If he is too tyrannical, they give notice; if he lacks authority, they become slovenly, impertinent, drunk and dishonest." W. H. Auden

I rhyme because it is lovely to hear. Thinking on this over the last week, the bitter truth is this and this alone. Wesley likes his rhyme. When I decided to finally break down and start composing my epic poem six years ago, there was never any question I would use "heroic" couplets. Writing a pseudo medieval piece with a modern lean I could easily have chosen to use alliteration as the ancients did, but I wanted it to "sound" like a poem (something many poets here and elsewhere frown upon). The meter chosen (tetrameter) was secondary and influenced by Tolkien's "Lay of Leithian", one of my favorite poems. The rhyme scheme was never in question. When spoken aloud, I desired to poem to feel like a thing performed by a travelling bard for people of no education. Violence, sex, intrigue and...rhyme.

Rhyme is a new conception. I read the oldest extant rhyme in human literature is the Chinese Shi Ling (@10th century BCE) and though it appears in every culture on Earth in every time period of the historical eras, it seems not to have become popular until the 6th century or so. I have some ideas as to why it is being placed upon a back burner in western poetry now, but will save that discussion for later.

As to Milton's assertion that it limits the poet, I have never found this to be true. Indeed, it seems to me that rhyme leads. All of my small poems are written as experiments in form. An attempt to teach my poor, primeval brain to think in different ways. A couple of moons past, I wrote a poem with assonance as its rhyme scheme. It was brutal. However, what I discovered was that as I wrote, rhyme attempted to force its way to the fore. I found no difficulty in "hearing" the rhyme endings to each line. Had I chosen to write the thing with "perfect rhyme" it would have been accomplished in about ten minutes. As it was, it took me near three hours.

Having written some 20,000 lines of Çaço, Man of the Morning Star with couplets has done its work.
I am now and shall forever be...a rhymer.
Crucify me if you will, but I will extol the music from the cross.
wesley

you know, I have an affection for rhyme. Like Wesley, it seems to force it's way to the fore when I am writing. I have written in other forms, such as Haiku, sonnets, and freeform, but I think in rhyme. I actually have to try and put it out of my head at the times that I want to write anything else! I like rhyme for the rhythm that it affords and it only limits my choice of words in a small way. It's too bad that many people think of rhyme as a form that is rather cheap and not a quality way to make poetry. Kind of like writing for greeting cards! ~ Gee

I use a rhyming dictionary (which of course is not really a dictionary as there are no definitions). I also use a thesaurus and my favorite dictionary weighs over 25 pounds.
From time to time those of my friends who do not write (which is nigh all of them) remarks- "Isn't that cheating?"
My response is- "Here. Take these three books and YOU write a poem as lucid and lovely as I." This usually shuts them up.
There are very few words in my rhyming dictionary that I do not use in ordinary conversation. There are even less that I do not know. Someday there will be none. Therefore, all of the words in my rhyming dictionary are at my disposal. My problem is that were I to wait for the words to come to mind, I would still be writing my first poem.
I have never felt that having a "pocket brain" was cheating.
wesley

If I could not buy a rhyming dictionary or thesaurus, I would create one. Byron's is in a museum in Britain and worth a few pounds. wesley

so critiquing mr blog would be great because I have lots of ambitions for rhyming right now. The more I understand the better my pursuits into rhyming will be.

I learned quite a bit about rhyme, and how it fits in with pattern, cadence and flow.
More importantly, I enjoyed myself!
Only criticism: the workshop seemed to tail off at the end, and I was expecting one more exercise. But I loved the challenge, the criticism, and the ideas.
Good stuff, I'll do another when I have the time.