Literary (de)construction.

Why has the literary world forgotten foot and meter?
It used to be the first device passed to student from teacher.
Although real skill and talent are required just to master,
Rhyme seems to have become arcane--A misinformed disaster.

Five-iamb lines have lost their place atop the poet's cadre
Of bright-gilt tools with which they crafted elegance in heyday.
And sonnets are displayed with all the Seven Worldly Wonders
As masterpieces of their time--but which now would be blunder.

And people say that rhyming works are childish in sound,
But I believe the problem is a slight bit more profound:
So is it really rhyme scheme which prevents an adult tone
Or has our language decomposed right to skeletal bone?

Ten thousand words at our disposal--why are we so terse
When asked to handpick just a few to represent each verse?
It's just societal inability to retain
The words of greatest eloquence, so therefore we refrain.

We actually treat polysyllabic words as work.
The av'rage poet's word set has taken a sharp downjerk.
The childish part is not the rhyme itself in this motif,
But word simplicity--which rhyming throws into relief.

Alas, I see no end to this deconstruction in sight
So I make peace with it and read new poems through the night.
And as I judge a neophyte, no credit I deduct her,
Just wish idly that her work be more elegant in structure.