Tangents: Most certainly NOT the trigonometric kind

In my favorite class on Monday we were talking about the role that strict form (rhyme schemes, syllable count, etc.) plays in poetry. It was fascinating- as always- and additionally quite entertaining! In addition to being his scholarly, brilliant, charming self, my professor is hilarious. He went off on how American football can be likened to form in poetry. Each down is like a stanza, and the rather complex rules reflect strict form, yet underneath the regulation there is an undercurrent of passion and violence bubbling up from beneath. He went on about how the tension between control/rules and competition/violence in football reveals American culture, and how this can be likened to the tension in poetry. He expressed himself much more poetically, and his tangent delighted me far more than any trigonometric functions. Yay poetry!