I have studied both poems. I think calling the second one a poem is a stretch, it's more like badly written prose.

xman-> Poe did free verse, but he did it well, and he did it with the goal of having a certain phonetic impact when read aloud. The whole poem is an onomonapeaia which I can't spell. The Obama poem has no extra merit when read aloud.

icedog-> yeah, I think that's a better version. Of course, I also think House of the Rising Sun is a better song entirely, but there you have it.

I don't think a poem has to rhyme to be a poem, Tennyson frequently didn't rhyme and I think he's one of the greatest English-language poets to live. But I think you do need SOME structure, or it's just prose.