Example: from The Song of Lawino by Okot p'Bitek

Ocol is no longer in love with the old type
He is in love with a modern girl.
The name of the beautiful one is Clementine!

Brother, when you see Clementine!
The beautiful one aspires
To look like a white woman;

Her lips are red-hot
Like glowing charcoal,
She resembles the wild cat
That has dipped its mouth in blood,
Her mouth is like raw yaws
It looks like an open ulcer,
Like the mouth of a fiend!
Tina dusts powder on her face
And it looks so pale;
She resembles the wizard
Getting ready for the midnight dance;

She dusts the ash-dirt all over her face
And when little sweat
Begins to appear on her body
She looks like the guinea fowl!
This is only a part of the original poem (which is the author's translation from his poem in his own language). There is no rhyme, but there is a noticeable rhythm. There are also examples of similes. The whole poem, which you ought to read, is a satire against the introduction of modern ways, perhaps unnecessarily, into traditional society. But you should also read the Song of Ocol in the same style which is the husband's reply to his wife's lament.
You will notice that this modern poem uses modern words and modern word order.

Things to look for in poetry
How do poets get the effects they (or their unconscious minds) want? In the past, though not so much nowadays, they used these language effects:

• Rhyme
• Alliteration
• Rhythm
• Metaphor
• Simile

Rhyme, alliteration and rhythm are all effects of sound. That is why they work best when the poem is spoken aloud. Metaphor and simile are effects of meaning. They work mainly in the mind when the reader thinks about the meanings of the words.
Techniques of Sound
Rhyme
Rhyme in English is an effect of the vowel sounds. It can work in the middle of lines as well as at the end, but it is mainly found at the end.
Example: The witches' chant from Macbeth

Round about the cauldron go
In the poisoned entrails throw -
Toad, that under the cold stone,
Days and nights hast thirty-one
Sweltered venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first in the charmed pot!
Double, double toil and trouble
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

You can see the rhymes here easily. They go in pairs at the end of the lines:
go, throw; stone, one; got, pot; trouble, bubble.
You might have noticed that stone and one are not rhymes in modern English. They probably sounded the same in Shakespeare's time but the sounds have changed since then. In some dialects of English, in Scotland for example, these words are still pronounced the same: stane, ane.
There are also rhymes within the line here. round, about and double, double, trouble.
The following example also shows rhymes within the lines, at the end and also alliteration.
Example: From Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girded round:
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
Notice the rhymes within the lines.
In line 6 there are twice five miles fertile
This kind of rhyme is sometimes called assonance.

Alliteration
However, Kubla Khan also has examples of alliteration. The last two words of each of the first five lines begin with the same consonant: Kubla Khan; dome decree; river ran; measureless man.
In the following lines too there are more examples.
Look again at the Witches' Chant. Say aloud the last two lines:
Double, double, toil and trouble,
Fire burn and cauldron bubble
The effect here is of the repetition of the consonants.
D...., d....., t..... ... t....
F.... b.... ... c.... b.....
If you say them aloud and bang your hand on the table at every D, T and B you will get a sound like drumming. This sound of drumming is exactly the sound Shakespeare wanted. Drumming is a magical sort of sound which makes people feel things (and sets their feet moving, sometimes). In this case he wanted to build up a feeling of dread and expectation of magic in the audience. The second line reinforces it but with a different kind of sound, more like feet stamping than drums beating.
Alliteration is an effect of the sounds of the consonants. Its purpose is to make a rhythmic sound in the hearer's ears and then in his mind. It helps, as rhyme does also, to emphasise parts of the meaning. By continuing rhymes and rhythms right through a long poem they help to show that the poem is a complete construction longer than the individual verses, and that the reader needs to experience the whole poem before he can understand it.

Wikipedia on Kubla Khan