That's How It Seems To Me

Some twenty first century literary critics try to tell us song is not poetry
And those they laud as poets do write in abstract prose
They have taken poetry from the workings classes
Though they are entitled to their opinions one must suppose

Gone are the days of the old fashioned rhymers
A rhymer nowadays would not know of fame
In literature as in all things changes keep on happening
And few things as we know do stay the same

When i was young in the Duhallow Town of Millstreet
At a horse fair there i heard a traveller sing
A marvellous old song known as 'Afton Waters'
Such joy the music and the words to me did bring

An old man said this is a song of Robert Burns
Written by him some eighteen decades ago
He is the National Bard of his Land Scotland
His words live on and in death his legend grow

Perhaps some of the modern literary critics would have the cheek
To dismiss Burns as a simple rhymer not a major poet
Though he remains as a literary great of Scotland
And his words the masses love to sing and quote.

With what most of the twenty first century critics on rhymers do say
I for one moment could never agree
If a good rhymer is not a poet there are no poets at all
At least anyway that's how it seems to me.