Formal ("non-free") verse was (and is) largely a product of a memorization-based culture. Rhyme and meter make it enormously easier to memorize a poem, or to recite a poem to a group of people gathered around a campfire. Also, there is something satisfying-in-itself about rhyme and meter. You can tell this by the way children enormously prefer rhyming, metrical poems.
Today, with huge public and university libraries accessible to most people, with Google to help us find things, and with companies like Amazon selling zillions of books online, the memorization-based culture has largely been replaced by the I'm-familiar-with-it-and-I-know-where-to-find-it culture.
Today a typical serious poet may have memorized only a few poems, but have working familiarity with hundreds, or even thousands, of other poems. What I think is most important is that a person writing today be aware of the greater literary culture when penning his or her own works, or when reading a particular piece by another writer. I weary of people who feel that they are corrupting the vitality of their Muse by immersing themselves in the works of others. I say, READ, READ, READ -- read the masters, read the works of people who are better than you -- get drunk on their words. Then write your own!
Fred
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