You know you're reading poetry
     if the writer says "it's" verse.

It may be long and epic
    or it  may be taunt and terse.

Its lines may be quite structured
     on blank and close to prose.

A poem may be varied,
     may be one or more of those.

Yet, if the writer says it's poetry
     then it's verse, you may suppose.

The poems often found today
     in books and magazines

Are not the works that some will take
     to be what poetry means.

Sometimes there's very little rhyme
     and meter but with feeble time;

Image one can scarcely ken,
     that often may seem bad or worse,

But if the writer says it's poetry
     then one can know it's verse.

You know you're reading poetry
     if it stands up off the page,

If it's language that is sculpted,
     erect as on a stage --

If the lines run high and low,
     aren't words just set into a row --

But are graven there in bold relief, 
     and a shapely flow rehearse --

There if the writer says it's poetry
     one can know it's verse.

So what is here may seem inane,
     mere doggerel at most;

With more the shades of Ogden Nash
     and less of Whitman's ghost.

If you most like your poetry blank
     then this may seem both rude and rank;

So mutter quietly, if you must,
     and remember ere you swear and curse --

If the writer says it's poetry
     then one can know it's verse.

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