Not Doggerel? Poem by C Richard Miles

Is it not doggerel, this verse of mine?
That is, it is not meant to be just rhyme
That keeps it going, without shape or sense.
I try not to fill up, at the expense
Of deeper meaning, lines with useless words
That pad the poem; it would be absurd
To think that I, because it just won't fit,
Should sacrifice my principles a bit.
No, though I try to make it sing and scan,
It's not that I devise a perfect plan
That makes the structure more important, say,
Than what I want to write. Another way
Of thinking might reveal that I, constrained
By metre, find that nothing's to be gained
From simply penning nonsense. What's the point
Of wasting precious moments if, disjoint,
The words do not converge in unity
To put my case. I'm fighting to be free
To get my message out and state my aim:
I do not simply scribble. Though it's plain
This poetry's old-fashioned, I don't state
Pentameter's anachronistic; fate
Seems to decree that sometimes words come out
In rhyming couplets and I have no doubt
That I'll continue writing in this form
Which once was thought by all to be the norm
But now they seek contemporary style.
Though, in my case, it will be quite a while
Until I ditch this stilted stuff. Till then
It will sound like doggerel I pen.