Alan Dyson is wrong. Learning poetry by heart is far from irrelevant. The top educational neuroscientists such as Dr Usha Goswami (Cambridge) and Dr Peter Byrant (Oxford) have been pushing for rhyming and rhythmic poetry to come back to classrooms for a long time. Please see articles on my web pages (Google JOSIE'S POEMS - and go to web index). Free verse isn't working when it comes to teaching children how to break words down into sounds (phonological awareness). There is a huge link between rhyming poetry and phonological awareness (a key literacy skill) and literacy. I have just written 900 new poems for children and they are on five websites. Teachers in 188 countries of the world used them last year and 602,000 of my web pages were accessed. Why? Because they also know the big link between rhyming poetry and literacy. If you'd like to speak to me, please telephone 01943 607891 and do go to my main website by Googling JOSIE'S POEMS. Josie Whitehead