On 10/05/2020 11:16, Adam P. Goucher wrote: [me:]
There are exceptions, but the only ones I can think of are either parodying specific poems or poets (and hence mimicing their diction) or _using_ metrical oddities for comic effect (e.g., something perfectly regular concluding with a last line that's 3x longer than all the others).
[Adam:]
I presume you're referring to this famous example...?
There was a young man from Japan Whose limericks never would scan. And when they asked why, He said "I do try! But when I get to the last line I try to fit in as many words as I can
Among others. I think there are also some like that by Ogden Nash. Though looking quickly for examples, what I actually find is a related phenomenon: he wrote some verse in which the rhymes are perfect but the metre is pretty much entirely absent, many of the lines being absurdly long. Again, done for comic effect. Here's one called "Everybody tells me everything" that's kinda half way between what I thought I remembered and what I described above: I find it difficult to enthuse Over the current news. Just when you think that at least the outlook is so black that it can grow no blacker, it worsens, And that is why I do not like the news, because there has never been an era when so many things were going so right for so many of the wrong persons. (Not one of his best, I think.) -- g