Idea Or Sound?

[milo]

Interesting you should say that, milo. I will always tell a student not to allow rhyme, in particular, to drive your poem. The poet must stay in control at all times, and if you have to alter your course for the sake of a rhyme then change the rhyme -- there's always another option.

Perhaps the only real option is to have a vocabulary large enough to draw from, so that sound never becomes a problem in the first place.

I think not allowing rhyme to drive a poem is good advice, but mostly because it sounds forced not because the idea is altered. Better to alter the idea and allow natural rhymes. I think separating yourself from your narrator makes it easier as frequently the ideas may be ones you don't agree with.

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I love the idea of the poet being in control at all times, as you know I have written quite a bit about it but I don't find these two concepts to be contradictory.