Does poetry have to rhyme?

Recently I stumbled across a very interesting question: Does poetry have to rhyme? Well the real answer is no, just like asking do artists have to sing their own songs or can they make a living out of covering other peoples songs? Of course people can make a living out of doing that; but having your own material does help. Now poetry also doesn't have to rhyme, but it does help if it does. Why? Well I think this for a few reasons. Firstly without the use of rhyme what's to distinguish a poem from a descriptive piece of writing or a monologue?

It's not quite the same as reading a short story extract. Not just the layout of the poem, but stories always take you on a journey. But poem's don't always do that. Sometimes they can just be a description of something, someone ect. Or a concoction of thoughts feelings and emotions. Now a description as a poem is like a descriptive piece of writing in, or for a story. And a concoction of thoughts feelings and emotions is just like a drama monologue. Although poems can be highly riddled and cryptic, unlike stories and monologues; this isn't always the case with poems.

However for more experienced readers, books do become more intellectually challenging to decipher what exactly is happening in the story, the same with a cryptic poem. Secondly is the skill. Now poetry that rhymes can be seen as more clever than poetry that doesn't. And people say that if it doesn't rhyme it gives the writer freedom to put any word into the poem. Instead of being limited to only a few words to make it rhyme with an earlier part of the poem.

However I believe that the fact that the poet has managed to make the poem rhyme, whilst keeping to the topic or theme, actually make the poet more skilled.

Finally is the flow. Now often when a poem rhymes the poem flows better and has more of a sort of rhythm to it. Again this makes the poem more lever as the poet has even managed to add this flow and rhythm to it, but the flow and rhythm will also make the poem more memorable. As the poem has this flow and rhythm it makes it stand out among the rest, and therefore easier to remember compared to no rhyming poems.

So in conclusion as I said before, no poem do not have to rhyme; but personally: I think it makes them a whole lot better :)