Why were early poems written in meters?

Answer 1

Poetry has some defined characteristics which poets have observed strictly through ages which are metrical form, perfection in rhythm and metre and loftiness in ideas. It also has to essentially contain music inborn. We know these are hard for untrained and lazy intellects to observe while writing poetry. But writing poetry without metre and rhythm was a taboo in mankind's long history and no one dared to write without them. Those who could not keep them could write but could not claim as a poet. Metre is an inviolable rule in poetry. Because there are millions of inferior poets now and there are equal numbers of such editors and publishers, poetry without metre and rhythm gets published regularly and we take them for granted.