Some types of deviations are allowed, but some aren't.
Tell that to, for instance, T S Eliot (unless you want to maintain that just about the only real poetry he wrote was "Old Possum's book of practical cats").
There's nothing wrong with preferring poetry that broadly fits the traditional forms, with somewhat-regular metre and so forth. I generally do, too, and I don't much like Swimmer963's poem here. But ... "not allowed"? Really?
But ... "not allowed"? Really?
If you prefer, "most people will think it sucks if you do because it violates instinctive aesthetic preferences". Knowing which deviations work to gain you status and which do not is the difference between Picasso and my 3 year old nephew.
**Note: I'm not a poet. I hardly ever write poetry, and when I do, it's usually because I've stayed up all night. However, this seemed like a very appropriate poem for Less Wrong. Not sure if it's appropriate as a top-level post. Someone please tell me if not.**
Imagine
The first man
Who held a stick in rough hands
And drew lines on a cold stone wall
Imagine when the others looked
When they said, I see the antelope
I see it.
Later on their children's children
Would build temples, and sing songs
To their many-faced gods.
Stone idols, empty staring eyes
Offerings laid on a cold stone altar
And left to rot.
Yet later still there would be steamships
And trains, and numbers to measure the stars
Small suns ignited in the desert
One man's first step on an airless plain
Now we look backwards
At the ones who came before us
Who lived, and swiftly died.
The first man's flesh is in all of us now
And for his and his children's sake
We imagine a world with no more death
And we see ourselves reflected
In the silicon eyes
Of our final creation