brilliant, cara!

But having looked again I am left still wondering a bit…
This is the layout you think it should be, yes?

So many gods, so many creeds,
So many paths that wind and wind,
While just the art of being kind
Is all the sad world needs.

I’ve tried reading this aloud several different ways, and for me the way that conveys the author’s intention best seems to be laying the stress of the first two lines something like this:

So MAN-y GODS, so MAN-y CREEDS…

My reasoning is that the poem’s essential structure of meaning lies in the apposition of the many (routes to human happiness) with the single thing the poet identifies as being required.

This renders the poem’s structure as more straightforwardly iambic throughout. You will remember far better than I what the term for the repetition of ‘so many’ is in the gentle arts of rhetoric! But the poem’s main punch is delivered by the short last line: only 6 syllables rather than the eight we expect from the rhythm of the preceding lines. This creates a subconscious “boom-boom” effect in our minds that underscores her conclusion point; it also formally mimics the idea that her suggestion is one of more elegance and simplicity than the longer alternative routes mentioned earlier.

Having said all that, I must confess I don’t particularly like it as a poem – too painfully close to a Hallmark card

Ah, let us rejoice in our diversity.

But great topic, Rubrick – stick around this time!