If These Vain People Had Their Way Poem by Francis Duggan

If these vain people had their way they'd make doggerel a crime
And jail every poetaster for penning forced rhyme
They would have me locked up in a small prison cell
Far distant from heaven in an earthly hell.

They feel they are god's gift to the earthly wise
And their dislike of all rhymers they don't try to disguise
For their literary critical columns they command huge fees
And they boast to the World of their Uni degrees.

If you are a rhymer do not waste your time
In submitting to modern poetry anthologies your rhyme
Your verse won't get published so why bother to try
The facts tell us so and the facts never lie.

If these vain people had their way on others their will they'd impose
And ban rhyme and rhymers and down to earth prose
And to recite doggerel in public would be an offence
An insult to those who have good taste and sense.

How hard life would be for some if the vain had their way
I would be in prison in a small cell today
Without paper and pen to scribble my rhyme
For penning bad verse I would have to serve time.