“Feminine” Rhymes

The Cock is crowing,

The stream is flowing,

The small birds twitter,

The lake doth glitter,

The green field sleeps in the sun.

~ William Wordsworth

If even Wordsworth writes in kiddie rhyme

And no one tells him, “Grow up, now!” . . .

If Dorothy can’t say, “That verse’s crime

Of femininity”; . . . If wife (that cow

Of cud devotion) said to him, “Now, Will,

You really should become a poet, man,

Instead of writing ditties, and not spill

Such stanzas, yes, instead write those that scan

With masculine and certain rhymes,” the guy

Would probably retreat to blank verse lines

Again, again, forever in reply.

He’d turn to blank verse measure mode that shines.

  Turn back to being Cock, wise Wordsworth, back

   To making poetry that’s far less slack.

©  Phillip Whidden