I thought for a long time that Dolly Parton is a poet as well as a terrific song writer, also as i have mentioned before and someone else has said look at Bob Dylan's work.

In this world there is nothing that is perfect, so perfect rhyme i'll leave that up to you. I've been a rhymer for more years than i care to remember, decades!! all i'm going to say on the subject is this, don't try too hard don't try to make every line rhyme Don't force it.

I am a rhymer and have been since the 1960/70s, i'm not saying poetry must or must not rhyme. I just love the constraints that rhyme puts on your vocabulary, people who write free verse have the whole dictionary of words to choose from not so the rhymer. The rhymer has to tell his/her story with a limited amount of words. Another thing to bare in mind is do you want people to remember what you wrote two/twenty years time? if so try rhyme it is much easier to remember. I can remember the first poem i ever wrote and most of all of them since. Some free verse writers i know couldn't tell you what they wrote a year ago without looking it up, This is just my opinion and i have been around a long time.