free verse essay

An Introduction to Free Verse Poetry

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Free verse poetry has no rhyme scheme and no fixed metrical pattern. Often echoing the cadences of natural speech, a free verse poem makes artistic use of sound, imagery, and a wide range of literary devices.

• Free verse:  Poetry that does not have a rhyme scheme or a consistent metrical pattern.
• Vers libre :  The French term for free verse.
• Formal verse:  Poetry that is shaped by rules for rhyme scheme, metrical pattern, or other fixed structures.

Types of Free Verse Poetry

Free verse is an open form, which means it has no predetermined structure and no prescribed length. Since there's no rhyme scheme and no set metrical pattern, there are no specific rules for line breaks or stanza divisions . 

Some free verse poems are so short, they might not resemble poems at all. In the early 20th century, a group who called themselves Imagists wrote spare poetry that focused on concrete images. The poets avoided abstract philosophies and obscure symbols. Sometimes they even abandoned punctuation. “The Red Wheelbarrow,” a 1923 poem by William Carlos Williams, is free verse in the Imagist tradition. In just sixteen words, Williams paints a precise picture, affirming the importance of small details:

so much depends

a red wheel

glazed with rain

beside the white

Other free verse poems succeed at expressing powerful emotions through run-on sentences, hyperbolic language, chanting rhythms, and rambling digressions. Perhaps the best example is Allen Ginsberg's 1956 poem " Howl ." Written in the tradition of the Beat Movement of the 1950s, "Howl" is more than 2,900 words long and can be read as three strikingly lengthy run-on sentences. 

Highly experimental poetry is also often written in free verse. The poet might focus on images or word sounds without regard to logic or syntax.  Tender Buttons by Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) is a stream-of-consciousness collection of poetic fragments. Lines like "A little called anything shows shudders" have perplexed readers for decades. Stein's startling word arrangements invite debate, analysis, and discussions on the nature of language and perception. The book often prompts readers to ask, What is a poem?

However, free verse isn't necessarily experimental or difficult to decipher. Many contemporary poets write free verse narratives in the language of ordinary speech. " What Did I Love " by Ellen Bass tells a personal story about a menial job. If not for the line breaks, the poem might pass for prose:

What did I love about killing the chickens? Let me start

with the drive to the farm as darkness

was sinking back into the earth.

Free Verse Controversies

With so much variation and so many possibilities, it's no wonder that free verse has stirred confusion and controversy in the literary sphere. In the early 1900s, critics riled against the rising popularity of free verse. They called it chaotic and undisciplined, the mad expression of a decaying society. Even as free verse became the standard mode, traditionalists resisted. Robert Frost , a master of formal rhymed verse and metrical blank verse , famously commented that writing free verse was like "playing tennis with the net down."

A modern-day movement called New Formalism, or Neo-Formalism, promotes a return to metrical rhyming verse. New Formalists believe that systematic rules help poets write more vividly and more musically. Formalist poets often say that writing within a structure prompts them to reach beyond the obvious and to discover surprising words and unexpected themes.

To counter this argument, proponents of free verse claim that strict adherence to traditional rules stifles creativity and leads to convoluted and archaic language. A landmark anthology,  Some Imagist Poets, 1915 , endorsed free verse as a "principle of liberty." Early followers believed that  " the individuality of a poet may often be better expressed in free-verse" and "a new cadence means a new idea."

In turn, T. S. Eliot  (1888–1965) resisted classification. Free verse mingles with rhyming verse and blank verse in Eliot's book-length poem,  The Waste Land . He believed that all poetry, regardless of form, possesses an underlying unity. In his often-quoted 1917 essay, "Reflections on Vers Libre," Eliot stated that "there is only good verse, bad verse, and chaos."  

Origins of Free Verse Poetry

Free verse is a modern idea, but its roots reach into antiquity. From Egypt to the Americas, early poetry was composed of prose-like chants without rhyme or rigid rules for metrical accented syllables. The richly poetic language in the Old Testament followed the rhetorical patterns of ancient Hebrew. Translated into English, the Song of Songs (also called Canticle of Canticles or Song of Solomon ) might be described as free verse:

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth — for thy love is better than wine. Thine ointments have a goodly fragrance; thy name is as ointment poured forth; therefore do the maidens love thee.

Biblical rhythms and syntax echo through English literature. 18th century poet Christopher Smart wrote poems shaped by anaphora rather than meter or rhyme. Readers mocked his wildly unconventional Jubilate Agno   (1759), which he wrote while confined to a psychiatric asylum. Today the poems seem playful and eerily modern:

For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry…

For first he looks upon his forepaws to see if they are clean.

For secondly he kicks up behind to clear away there.

For thirdly he works it upon stretch with the forepaws extended.

American essayist and poet Walt Whitman  borrowed similar rhetorical strategies when he wrote his rule-breaking  Leaves of Grass . Composed of long, unmetered lines, the poems shocked many readers, but eventually made Whitman famous. Leaves of Grass set the standard for the radical form that later became known as free verse:

I CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself,

And what I assume you shall assume,

For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

Meanwhile, in France, Arthur Rimbaud  and a group of symbolist poets  were dismantling long-established traditions. Rather than regimenting the number of syllables per line, they shaped their poems according to the rhythms of spoken French. By the dawn of the 20th century, poets throughout Europe were exploring the potential of poetry based on natural inflections rather than formal structure. 

Free Verse in Modern Times

The new century provided fertile soil for literary innovations. Technology boomed, bringing powered flight, radio broadcasting, and automobiles. Einstein introduced his theory of special relativity. Picasso and other modern artists deconstructed perceptions of the world. At the same time, the horrors of World War I, brutal factory conditions, child labor, and racial injustices spurred a desire to rebel against social norms. The new modes of writing poetry were part of a larger movement that encouraged personal expression and experimentation.

The French called their rule-breaking poetry  vers libre. English poets adopted the French term, but the English language has its own rhythms and poetic traditions. In 1915, poet Richard Aldington (1892–1962) suggested the phrase free verse to distinguish the work of avant-garde poets writing in English.

Aldington's wife  Hilda Doolittle, better known as H.D., pioneered English free verse in minimalist poems like 1914's " Oread ." Through evocative imagery, H.D. dared Oread, a mountain nymph of ancient Greek mythology, to shatter tradition:

Whirl up, sea—

whirl your pointed pines

H.D.'s contemporary, Ezra Pound (1885–1972), championed free verse, believing “No good poetry is ever written in a manner twenty years old, for to write in such a manner shows conclusively that the writer thinks from books, convention and cliché, and not from life." Between 1915 and 1962, Pound wrote his sprawling epic,  The Cantos , mostly in free verse.

For readers in the United States, free verse had special appeal. American newspapers celebrated informal, democratic poetry that described the lives of ordinary people.  Carl Sandburg  (1878–1967) became a household name.  Edgar Lee Masters (1868–1950) won instant fame for the free verse epitaphs in his Spoon River Anthology . America's  Poetry  magazine, founded in 1912, published and promoted free verse by  Amy Lowell  (1874–1925) and other leading poets. 

Today, free verse dominates the poetry scene. Twenty-first century poets chosen to be the Poets Laureate of the United States have worked mainly in the free verse mode. Free verse is also the preferred form for winners of the  Pulitzer Prize for Poetry  and the National Book Award for Poetry . 

In her classic text, A Poetry Handbook , Mary Oliver (1935– ) calls free verse "the music of conversation" and "time spent with a friend."

• Beyers, Chris. A History of Free Verse.  University of Arkansas Press. 1 Jan 2001.
• Childress, William. "Is Free Verse Killing Poetry?" VQR ( Virginia Quarterly Review) . 4 Sept 2012. https://www.vqronline.org/poetry/free-verse-killing-poetry . 
• Eliot, T.S. "Reflections on Vers Libre." New Statesman . 1917. http://world.std.com/~raparker/exploring/tseliot/works/essays/reflections_on_vers_libre.html . 
• Lowell, Amy, ed. Some Imagist Poets, 1915 . Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin. April 1915. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30276/30276-h/30276-h.htm
• Lundberg, John. "Why Don’t Poems Rhyme Anymore?" HuffPost. 28 Apr 2008. Updated 17 Nov 2011.  https://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-lundberg/why-dont-poems-rhyme-anym_b_97489.html . 
• Oliver, Mary. A Poetry Handbook . New York: Houghton Mifflin Hartcourt Publishing Company. 1994. pp 66-69.
• Warfel, Harry R. "A Rationale of Free Verse." Jahrbuch für Amerikastudien.  Universitätsverlag WINTER Gmbh. 1968. pp. 228-235.  https://www.jstor.org/stable/41155450 . 
• An Introduction to Blank Verse
• Overview of Imagism in Poetry
• What Is Narrative Poetry? Definition and Examples
• What Is Poetry, and How Is It Different?
• What Is Enjambment? Definition and Examples
• Lyric Poetry: Expressing Emotion Through Verse
• What Is a Sonnet?
• The Sonnet: A Poem in 14 Lines
• The Stanza: The Poem Within The Poem
• A Guide to Wordsworth's Themes of Memory and Nature in 'Tintern Abbey'
• What Is an Iamb in Poetry?
• Metaphysical Poetry and Poets
• 5 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month in the Classroom
• An Introduction to the Song-Like Villanelle Form of Poetry
• Figure of Sound in Prose and Poetry

Free Verse Definition

What is free verse? Here’s a quick and simple definition:

Free verse is the name given to poetry that doesn’t use any strict meter or rhyme scheme . Because it has no set meter, poems written in free verse can have lines of any length, from a single word to much longer. William Carlos Williams’s short poem “The Red Wheelbarrow” is written in free verse. It reads: “so much depends / upon / a red wheel / barrow / glazed with rain / water / beside the white / chickens.”

Some additional key details about free verse:

• The opposite of free verse is formal verse , or poetry that uses both a strict meter and rhyme scheme.
• Not only do poets writing in free verse have the freedom to write unrhymed lines of any length, but they also often use enjambment in unconventional ways, inserting line breaks in the middle of sentences and even in the middle of words (such as “wheelbarrow” and “rainwater”).
• Walt Whitman is often said to be the father of free verse. It’s true that he popularized this type of poetry, but in fact there were others who had written unrhymed, unmetered poetry before him.
• Most poets writing today write in free verse.

Free Verse in Depth

In order to understand free verse in more depth, it’s helpful to have a strong grasp of a few other literary terms related to poetry. We cover each of these in depth on their own respective pages, but below is a quick overview to help make understanding blank verse easier.

• Formal verse : Poetry with a strict meter (rhythmic pattern) and rhyme scheme.
• Blank verse : Poetry with a strict meter but no rhyme scheme.
• Free verse: Poetry without any strict meter or rhyme scheme.
• Stress : In poetry, the term stress refers to the emphasis placed on certain syllables in words. For instance, in the word “happily” the emphasis is on the first syllable (“hap”), so “hap” is the “stressed” syllable and the other two syllables (“pi” and “ly”) are “unstressed.”
• Foot : In poetry, a "foot" refers to the rhythmic units of stressed and unstressed syllables that make up lines of meter . For example, an iamb is one type of foot that consists of one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, as in the word "De- fine ."
• Meter : A pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables that defines the rhythm of lines of poetry. Poetic meters are named for the type and number of feet they contain. For example, iambic pentameter is a type of meter that contains five iambs per line (thus the prefix “penta,” which means five).

Free Verse, Meter, and Rhyme

Poems written in free verse are characterized by generally not using meter or rhyme , but that doesn’t mean that they can never include meter or rhyme. In fact, poets writing in free verse often do include a bit of meter or rhyme in their poetry. Saying that a poem is “free verse” just means that the use of meter or rhyme is not extensive or consistent in the poem.

For instance, TS Elliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is a famous free verse poem in which many lines end in rhyme, but those rhymes don't follow any particular pattern (or rhyme scheme ) and the poem follows no particular meter. Similarly, Walt Whitman was known to occasionally lapse in and out of using meter in his unrhymed poetry—but for the most part his poems don’t make use of meter, so they’re still considered free verse.

Stanzas in Free Verse

While some types of formal verse have specific requirements for the length or number of stanzas , free verse has no such restrictions. A poet writing in free verse may use stanzas of regular length consistently throughout their poem, though more often than not the length of stanzas in free verse poems varies at least somewhat throughout the poem—which is just to say that they don't follow any rule in particular.

Free Verse and Prose Poems

Since free verse is, by definition, free of formal constraints, there aren’t any specific types or “forms” of free verse poetry (as there are with formal verse)—except for one. Prose poems are a specific type of free verse poetry that doesn’t have any line breaks, and which therefore take the form of paragraphs.

Free Verse Examples

T.s. eliot's "the love song of j. alfred prufrock".

This famous free verse poem by T.S. Eliot rhymes, but not according to any particular pattern, and it doesn’t use meter (note how varied the line lengths are). Here's an excerpt:

Let us go then, you and I, When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherized upon a table; Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets, The muttering retreats Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells: Streets that follow like a tedious argument Of insidious intent To lead you to an overwhelming question ... Oh, do not ask, “What is it?” Let us go and make our visit.

Walt Whitman's "When Lilacs Last In Dooryard Bloom’d"

Walt Whitman is best known for writing free verse, but he often injected metered lines into his free verse sporadically. Here the second line is a near-perfect line of dactylic hexameter (six feet of stressed - unstressed - unstressed syllables) that appears seemingly out of the blue. The lines before and after this example are not dactylic at all.

I fled forth to the hiding receiving night that talks not, Down to the shores of the wa ter , the path by the swamp in the dim ness , To the solemn shadowy cedars and ghostly pines so still.

E.E. Cummings's "[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]"

E.E. Cummings was famous for pushing the boundaries of what many readers would have even recognized as poetry at the time when he was writing. Written in free verse, the formal inventiveness of his poetry bucks many other poetic conventions as well, including the use of proper punctuation and normal rules of indentation. [i carry your heart with me(i carry it in] is one of his more well-known poems, and it uses rhyme irregularly throughout. This excerpt contains the poem's first two stanzas:

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart)i am never without it(anywhere i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done by only me is your doing,my darling)                                                                         i fear no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true) and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you

William Carlos Williams's "This Is Just To Say"

Williams's writing is a good example of the incredibly spare, restrained style that can be achieved through free verse—in this case, by using very short lines to heighten language that might otherwise seem perfectly ordinary and unremarkable. Here are the first two stanzas of his famous poem, "This is Just to Say":

I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast

Why Do Writers Use Free Verse?

Generally speaking, formal verse gradually fell out of fashion with poets over the course of the 20th century. This was in part because, as literacy levels rose, meter and rhyme (which originated as formal features to aid in memorization and comprehension) no longer seemed necessary.

But free verse was also attractive to poets simply because it lacked the restrictions and constraints imposed on poetry by meter and rhyme, and therefore left it to the poet to determine the form his or her poem would take—and to invent his or her own restrictions and constraints. Today, it could be said that the main reason most poets write in free verse is simply that it has become the norm, in much the same way that formal and blank verse were once the norm.

While free verse lacks some of the restraints of formal and blank verse, it still involves all the elements that make up the form of a poem (including diction , syntax , lineation , stanza , rhythm , and the many different types of rhyme ). It's just that there aren't any rules governing how they must be used.

Other Helpful Free Verse Resources

• The Wikipedia Page on Free Verse : An overview of free verse, including a bit more information on the history of its use.
• The Dictionary Definition of Free Verse : A simple definition of free verse.
• Collected free verse : A webpage that compiles some of the more famous examples of free verse poetry from history.
• Free Verse on Youtube : A short video that gives a basic definition of free verse and provides some examples.

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A free verse poem is a poem that doesn’t rely on any particular form, meter, or rhyme scheme, yet still conveys powerful feelings and ideas. Rather than letting a certain structure define the poem, the poet lets the poem structure itself through the interplay of language, sound, and literary devices.

Wait a minute—poetry doesn’t have to have a form? Well, all poems have forms, but a free verse poem doesn’t have to have a fixed form. While schools expose students to highly formal poetry ( sonnets , villanelles, haikus , and the like), there are countless free verse poem examples that are just as delightful and intriguing.

So, what is a free verse poem? What is the difference between blank verse vs. free verse? And where can I learn how to write a free verse poem? Right here—let’s define the form, explore some famous free verse poems, and look at how to write one.

What is a Free Verse Poem?

Characteristics of free verse poetry, free verse vs. blank verse, free verse poem examples, how to write a free verse poem, why write free verse poems.

Before we look at a free verse poem definition, it’s important to understand what free verse poems aren’t. Characteristics of free verse poetry include a lack of form, meter, and rhyme scheme, which we will expand upon shortly. But first, if you don’t know what form, meter, or rhyme are, read below.

Characteristics of free verse poetry include a lack of form, meter, and rhyme scheme.

When discussing form in poetry , there are a few different concepts to know:

Free Verse Poetry Does Not Have: Meter

Meter refers to the pattern of syllabic stress in the poem. A syllable can be either stressed or unstressed, depending on how each syllable is emphasized.

Take, for example, the word “bombard.” Here, the second syllable is stressed, because you put emphasis on the word like this: “bom• bard .”

This pattern of unstressed-stressed is called an iamb; in an iambic poem, a line of poetry roughly follows this pattern, word after word and line after line. Each line, also, will usually include the same number of iambs. Other metrical patterns include the trochee, anapest, and dactyl.

Free Verse Poetry Does Not Have: Rhyme Scheme

A rhyme scheme is a pattern of rhyming words, typically at the end of each line of poetry. A simple rhyme scheme is an “ABAB” rhyme scheme, in which the 1st line rhymes with the 3rd, and the 2nd line rhymes with the fourth.

Here’s an example of that rhyme scheme, from the poem “ A Psalm of Life ” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:

Example poetry with a rhyme scheme:

Tell me not, in mournful numbers , Life is but an empty dream !— For the soul is dead that slumbers , And things are not what they seem .

Rhyme schemes can be much more complicated than this, and there are also such things as slant rhymes and internal rhymes. When it comes to poetry form, however, a rhyme scheme involves perfect rhymes occurring at the ends of lines.

Free Verse Poetry Does Not Have: Fixed Form

Form combines the elements of rhyme and meter, adding additional requirements of length and lineation.

A traditional Italian Sonnet, for example, has the following requirements:

Length : 14 lines in 2 stanzas, an octet and a sestet.

Meter : Iambic Pentameter (5 iambs per line).

Rhyme Scheme : ABBA ABBA CDE CDE. Some variation exists for the rhyme scheme of the last six lines, but the first eight lines are always ABBA.

Learn more about poetry form at our article What is Form in Poetry?

Summing Up: What is a Free Verse Poem?

A free verse poem, also known as a vers libre , is a poem that lacks all of the above. It has no defined meter, no consistent rhyme scheme, and no specified length or formal requirements.

What is a free verse poem? A free verse poem, also known as a vers libre , is a poem that has no defined meter, no consistent rhyme scheme, and no specified length or formal requirements.

Because of this, a free verse poem follows its own internal logic. While the free verse poem has no externally defined form, it does rely on sound, word choice , length, and literary devices to become cogent and compelling.

What are some characteristics of free verse poetry, especially if it doesn’t use rhyme or meter?

When we get to some free verse poem examples, you’ll see that it’s impossible to organize all free verse poems into one set of traits. However, many poems will have some or most of the following:

Cadence and Flow

Cadence refers to the natural rhythm of the poem, as defined by changes in pitch, sound, and emphasis.

In poems with formal structures, the cadence is shaped by the poem’s length and meter. For example, an iambic poem has a cadence not-so-different from the beating of one’s heart, as the iamb follows a ba• dum , ba• dum , ba• dum , ba• dum pattern.

In free verse poems, cadence is built from the language the poet uses. Poetic devices like euphony, cacophony, and alliteration help develop the poem’s pace and rhythm.

In free verse poems, cadence is built from the language the poet uses.

The end result is the poem’s flow . How does it feel to read the poem? Does it move like the wind? Pulse like a heart? Crash like a wave? Crack like glass?

Form Following Language

In formal poetry, language follows form. The words must be arranged to fit the poem’s metrical patterns, rhyme schemes, and other requirements. Of course, the form  aids the meaning of the poem, as the two work together, but the rules of the form cannot be broken (except in very intentional circumstances). 

The poem’s line lengths, stanza breaks, internal rhymes, cadence, and overall length are defined by the words that the poet uses.

With free verse poems, the opposite is true: form follows language, like a tailored suit. The poem’s line lengths, stanza breaks, internal rhymes, cadence, and overall length are defined by the words that the poet uses.

This isn’t to say that free verse poems are easier to write than formal poems, nor are they intrinsically “better” or “worse.” The end result is the same: a piece of literature charged with imagery, emotion, language, meaning.

Non-Uniform Lines and Stanzas

One of the more obvious characteristics of free verse poetry is its lack of uniform line- and stanza-lengths.

In the free verse poem, lines and stanzas do not need to be uniform.

In a formal poem, the lines will be a similar length to each other, and each stanza will carry a predefined set of lines.

In the free verse poem, lines and stanzas do not need to be uniform. One line can have 2 words and the next can have 12; one stanza can have 8 lines and the next can have 1. This freedom of lineation allows the poet to let language define the poem’s structure.

Experiments With Space

Because free verse poems have no set length, they can play with space on the page in a way that formal poems can’t.

What does that mean? Here’s are three free verse poem examples that take up the full page, rather than just sticking to left-flush, uniform lines:

•  “ Deconstruction: Onion ” by Kenji C. Liu
•  “ Rules at the Juan Marcos Huelga School (Even the Unspoken Ones) ” by Lupe Mendez
•  “ Swan and Shadow ” by John Hollander

As you can see in each example, the poet experiments with page space and lineation in a way that adds to the poem’s meaning.

Prosaic Qualities

Because formal poetry sticks to a particular form, those poems are always written “in verse.” Free verse poems, on the other hand, can borrow from the qualities of prose, using straightforward language and sentence structure to reinforce poetic ideas.

Free verse poems can borrow from the qualities of prose, using straightforward language and sentence structure to reinforce poetic ideas.

This is differentl from the prose poem , which is a poem written in sentences and paragraphs, rather than lines and stanzas. the prose poem is its own unique form, but free verse poems can borrow qualities from the prose poem, as well as from many other forms of poetry. 

Concise Imagery

It is important for formless poems, especially short free verse poems, to build concise, vivid imagery . A poem might not impact the reader if the reader cannot visualize the poem, and without form to rely on, the free verse poem must compensate through imagery.

Free verse is often used by poets to create meaning from chaos, letting language develop new forms, ideas, and images.

Take “ The Red Wheelbarrow ” by William Carlos Williams, a concise but powerful example of short free verse poems. The poem’s meaning isn’t clear, but it is provocative: what, exactly, relies on the wheelbarrow? Why does its juxtaposition to the chickens matter?

Despite its brevity, Williams’ poem has a metaphysical element to it, pushing the reader to question and define the image further. It is a poem built upon the interplay of poet and reader, using formlessness to create its own meaning.

Free verse is often used by poets to do exactly that: create meaning from seeming chaos, letting language develop new forms, ideas, images.

You may have heard of the poetic form “blank verse,” which sounds pretty similar to “free verse.” Before we look at more free verse poem examples, let’s clarify the difference between free verse vs. blank verse.

Unlike free verse poems, blank verse does require a specific type of meter, and each line has to have the same number of feet.

A blank verse poem is a specific poetry form. It is written with a specific metrical form: many blank verse poems are written in iambic pentameter, which means each line of poetry has five iambs. However, other forms exist as well, such as trochaic blank verse or dactylic blank verse.

Like free verse poems, blank verse poems have no defined length—they can be as short as 10 lines or as long as 10,000. Many poets have used the blank verse form to write soliloquies, monologues, and epics. Additionally, blank verse does not require a specific rhyme scheme.

Another way to think about the difference between free verse vs. blank verse is that blank verse is the halfway point between formal poetry and free verse: it doesn’t have a rhyme scheme or predefined length, but it does have meter.

As you’ll see in the below free verse poem examples, the free verse form challenges what a poem can truly become. For each of these short free verse poems, read each poem like a poet , taking note of how each poem uses language to scaffold form.

“Shoulders” by Naomi Shihab Nye

Found here in the Academy of American Poets .

In this simple free verse poem, Naomi Shihab Nye comes to a powerful conclusion from a simple observation. In the poem, a man crosses the street while carrying his sleeping son. So as not to disturb his son’s sleep, the man must cross while keeping his son away from the light and noise and splash of the car.

Nye’s poem shows us a beautiful moment of tenderness. She notes that the boy isn’t marked “FRAGILE”—nothing about the boy begs his father’s tenderness, but he offers it nonetheless.

The last two stanzas are the most powerful. Nye observes that the world is much like this rainy road—the road will always be wide and rainy, and the world will always be difficult to live in. How can we expect to survive if we don’t treat each other with this same tenderness, noting what’s “FRAGILE” in each of our delicate, beautiful lives?

“The Heaven” by Franz Wright

I lived as a monster, my only hope is to die like a child. In the otherwise vacant and seemingly ceilingless

vastness of a snowlit Boston

church, a voice said: I can do that

if you ask me, I will do it for you.

Take note of the gorgeous lyricism in this piece: you can hear the phrase “seemingly ceilingless / vastness” bounce off the walls like they’re echoing in that snowlit Boston church. With this image juxtaposed against the first line’s monstrosity, the poem evokes both Heaven and Hell, begging for absolution as pure as a child’s innocence.

“First Memory” by Louise Glück

Found here in Poetry Society .

This poem untangles the different kinds of pain that the speaker felt from childhood neglect. The speaker believed that the endurance of that pain, the reason it stung years into her adulthood, was because she was not loved the way she needed. This may still be true, but the core of her pain is that she loved her father, and this love keeps the wound fresh.

Short free verse poems often rely on simple juxtapositions or binaries, dismantling the poet’s ways of thinking through sharp, concise language.

“little prayer” by Danez Smith

Found here in the Academy of American Poets.

This free verse poem relies on the unexpected. Where the speaker expects slaughter and ruin, they hope someone will find honey, lilacs, and healing. These terse juxtapositions create some surprising imagery, as the reader imagines honey doused over a killing floor, or flowers in a lion’s cage.

By titling the poem “little prayer” (in undercase letters, no less), Smith’s poem is both a hope and a dare, petitioning whatever higher power there is to heal what might seem unhealable.

“On a Train” by Wendy Cope

Found here in The Poetry Archive .

The book I’ve been reading rests on my knee. You sleep.

It’s beautiful out there— fields, little lakes and winter trees in February sunlight, every car park a shining mosaic.

Long, radiant minutes, your hand in my hand, still warm, still warm.

Some poems don’t need to have deeper meanings; they can simply exist and find loveliness in existence. Wendy Cope’s free verse poem “On a Train” does exactly that. By reminiscing on a cold Winter’s afternoon and finding warmth in the unexpected, the speaker reminds us of beauty in the everyday, not least when next to the one you love.

If you’re interested in writing short poetry, take a look at our article Examples of Short Poems and How to Write Them .

Here are some longer free verse poem examples that might also interest you:

• “Dear Proofreader” by David Hernandez 
• Pluto Shits on the Universe Fatimah Asghar 
• I Wake Early by Jane Hirshfield

Now, let’s take a look at how to write a free verse poem. Because free verse poems have unlimited possibilities in length, formatting, and intention, there is no singular way to write any piece. After all, free verse is often used by poets to generate form from meaning, so if there was one standard method on how to write a free verse poem, these poems would be a lot less variegated and interesting.

Nonetheless, you can rely on the following 5 tips to generate your poem, paying close attention to the characteristics of free verse poetry as we described earlier.

1. Start with a mental image, emotion, or idea

The best poetry doesn’t spell out an idea in plain language, it illustrates that idea through vivid imagery.

Consider the above free verse poem examples. Naomi Shihab Nye illustrates the careless world as a wide, rainy road; Danez Smith illustrates healing as lilacs in a tiger’s cage. These simple images create powerful metaphors , showing the reader different ways to view the world.

In your own poetry, start with the ideas and images you want to form the poem. These items don’t have to start your piece, but they will likely form the core of what you write, giving shape and substance to your free verse poem.

2. Follow the voice in your heart

One of the joys—and challenges—of writing free verse poetry is the limitlessness of the form. Rather than fitting your feelings into predefined structures, your feelings structure the poem itself. This can be hugely liberating, and also hugely mortifying.

Free verse is often used by poets to give form to their feelings. As such, you should try to do the same, and you can accomplish this by following the voice in your heart.

What does that mean? It means speaking openly and honestly on the page, turning off the inner critic and getting the words down first.

You don’t even have to start with poetry: you can write a sort of prose poem and edit later. Questions of form, like line breaks , stanza breaks, indentation, and flow, can arise after you’ve put the word down. That’s for your brain—but first, write from the heart, and do so without any self-editing.

3. End lines on concrete nouns and verbs

An enduring rule of all poetry writing is to end lines on concrete nouns and verbs. By concrete, we mean words that are visual—you can visualize the word “brick,” for example, but you can’t visualize the word “neologism.”

An enduring rule of all poetry writing is to end lines on concrete nouns and verbs.

Generally, it’s best not to end lines on other parts of speech. Sometimes you can end a line on an adjective or even an adverb, but pronouns, articles, prepositions, being verbs, and conjunctions are rarely useful end words.

End words clue the reader towards what is most important in the line, especially because line breaks and stanza breaks emphasize those end words.

Of course, rules are made to be broken, just break them skillfully. For example, in the free verse poem “ We Real Cool ” by Gwendolyn Brooks, most lines end on the preposition “we” to emphasize the lack of individualism among the poem’s subject—truant school boys.

4. Play with line breaks

What is a free verse poem without experiments in form? The free verse form allows poets to take up the full page if they need it, and the easiest way to play with the page space is to play with line breaks.

The best line breaks accomplish two things. First, they emphasize the most important word or phrase in the line, usually highlighting concrete imagery. Second, they add pauses in the flow of the words, allowing certain ideas to stick with the reader and creating the poem’s cadence.

Looking deeper, there are two types of line breaks: end-stopped lines and enjambed lines. An end-stopped line is when the line breaks after a period, semicolon, em dash, or colon. This can also occur when a line ends with a comma or the completion of a phrase, where a natural pause would exist anyway. End-stopped lines emphasize the completeness of an idea.

Enjambed lines are lines where a line break interrupts an unfinished thought. These lines usually do not end in punctuation, and they emphasize the continuity of a thought, often juxtaposing different ideas in the same lines.

Since experiments with space are one of the characteristics of free verse poetry, poets can further play with line breaks by indenting them across the page, writing lines of poetry in center-flush or right-flush, and including indents and lacunas in the text.

The best way to experiment with line breaks is to observe how other poets do it. Take a look at the free verse poem examples we provided, including the longer-form poems we linked to. Observe how the line breaks, stanza breaks, and use of page space affects how you read and interpret the poem, and incorporate those experiments into your own work.

5. Edit for flow, clarity, and impact

If you plan on publishing your free verse poem, consider edits for flow, clarity, and impact.

Make sure the poem’s cadence flows where you want it to, and breaks where you want it to break as well. Make sure each image is crisp, understandable, and relates clearly to the poem’s topic. Use line breaks to highlight important images, and use stanzas to organize and juxtapose those images.

Finally, consider how the poem starts and ends. Does the poem end different from how it began? Does each line build upon the previous line’s ideas? Does the poem’s ending inspire, educate, provoke, excite, or chill the reader?

Free verse is often used by poets to give form to feeling, letting language dictate the terms of the poem itself.

Free verse is often used by poets to give form to feeling, letting language dictate the terms of the poem itself. Formal poetry, on the other hand, is used by poets to challenge their creativity, as the task of fitting words into form, making those words compelling, and crafting an impactful poem is often just as challenging.

Many poetry forms have a certain kind of history, and often dwell on similar topics. Many sonnets and ghazals focus on love, for example. Nonetheless, there is no particular reason to prioritize one poetry form over another: at the end of the day, both formal and free verse poems provide unique creative opportunities.

So, which should you write? Pay close attention to your own needs as a poet. If you have a lot of feelings that you want to explore on the page, you might be better starting off with free verse or even prose poetry. If you have a clearly defined topic in mind and want to challenge your word choice, formal poetry might give you the creative outlet you need.

And remember, nothing is final on the page. You can write a free verse poem and edit it into a sestina or villanelle ; you can write a cinquain or a contrapuntal, then edit it into free verse. The page is yours to play with!

Experiment with Poetry Forms at Writers.com

Want to learn more about free verse poems and poetry forms? The courses at Writers.com can help! Take a look at our upcoming poetry courses , where you’ll study the craft, process, and techniques of poetry writing. We hope to see you there!

Sean Glatch

Your page is giving me hope, literally

Exact information I was looking for. Thanks❤️

I have learnt a lot. Thank you for this writeup. As an aspiring poet, I will be able to do better with the knowledge I have gained from here.

I savor the order in which you shared this information. Never seen it put quite this way. Very interesting indeed. The info obtained here, I consider an asset, and thank you very much. I love trying to write poetry. I did get one book of poetry published in my younger years, When God Speaks, Write! I wish I would have had this information back then. May God Bless you.

Good examples

Highly informative & helpful. I’d resisted writing free verse until very recently, fearing that I’d just produce word spew. This article has provided some guidelines. Thank you.

Very helpful to me. I’ll re-read not sure I’ve soaked in all the information.

I write mostly in free verse and I love the freedom when especially composing it’s music.For example I do use rhyme but on in a set rhyme scheme but rather anywhere in a line.

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Definition of Free Verse

Free verse is a literary device that can be defined as poetry that is free from the limitations of a regular meter or rhythm and does not rhyme with fixed forms. Such poems are without rhythm and rhyme schemes, do not follow regular rhyme scheme rules, yet they provide artistic expression. In this way, the poet can give his own shape to a poem however he or she desires. However, it still allows poets to use alliteration , rhyme, cadences , and rhythms to get the effects that they consider are suitable for the piece.

Features of Free Verse

• Free verse poems have no regular meter or rhythm.
• They do not follow a proper rhyme scheme; these poems do not have any set rules.
• This type of poem is based on normal pauses and natural rhythmical phrases , as compared to the artificial constraints of normal poetry.
• It is also called vers libre , which is a French word meaning “free verse.”

Difference between Free Verse and Prose Poems

Although a poem can have free verse, it is still not prose . On the other hand, prose even if it has some poetic elements, is not poetry. Therefore, the free verse means using a free verse in a poem having no rhyme scheme. On the other hand, a prose poem means that it is a passage comprising prose style but it is a poem. It is not necessary that a prose poem should have all the poetic elements, but it has some of them.

Meter, and Rhyme Scheme in Free Verse Poems

Meter and regular meter means the use of stressed or unstressed syllables in a proper pattern. They could be in pentameter , hexameter, or tetrameter. A free verse poem does not have any of such meters. Similarly, it also does not have any proper rhyme scheme. Therefore, such poems are called free verse poems.

Examples of Free Verse in Literature

Example #1: a noiseless patient spider by walt whitman.

“ A noiseless patient spider , I mark’d where on a little promontory it stood isolated, Mark’d how to explore the vacant vast surrounding, It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself, Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them. And you O my soul where you stand, Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space… Till the bridge you will need be form’d, till the ductile anchor hold, Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.”

If you are looking for free verse examples, then Walt Whitman is your guy. He is known as the father of free verse English poetry. In this poem, only a simple metaphor is used to mesmerize readers without employing a regular rhyme scheme or rhythm. We can see normal pauses in the poem unlike the typical limitations of metrical feet.

Example #2: Soonest Mended by John Ashbury

“Barely tolerated, living on the margin In our technological society, we were always having to be rescued On the brink of destruction, like heroines in Orlando Furioso Before it was time to start all over again. There would be thunder in the bushes, a rustling of coils… The whole thing might not, in the end, be the only solution… Came plowing down the course, just to make sure everything was O.K. … About how to receive this latest piece of information.”

This is one of the best examples of free verse poetry. In this poem, there is no regular rhyme scheme or rhythm. It is without poetic constraints but has a flow that gives it a natural touch.

Example #3: Come Slowly, Eden by Emily Dickinson

“Come slowly, Eden Lips unused to thee. Bashful, sip thy jasmines, As the fainting bee, Reaching late his flower, Round her chamber hums, Counts his nectars—alights, And is lost in balms!”

Emily Dickinson is famous as the mother of American English free verse. This poem does not have consistent metrical patterns , musical patterns, or rhyme. Rather, following the rhythm of natural speech, it gives an artistic expression to the ideas it contains.

Example #4: The Garden by Ezra Pound

“Like a skein of loose silk blown against a wall She walks by the railing of a path in Kensington Gardens, And she is dying piece-meal of a sort of emotional anemia. And round about there is a rabble Of the filthy, sturdy, unkillable infants of the very poor. They shall inherit the earth. In her is the end of breeding. Her boredom is exquisite and excessive… will commit that indiscretion.”

Ezra Pound is also renowned for writing free verse poetry. He has created this modern free verse poem with musical quality. There are stressed and unstressed patterns, but they are created in a very clever way. It is not following a regular rhyme scheme, but we can see alliteration in words such as “like,” “loose,” “round rabble,” “exquisite,” and “excessive.”

Function of Free Verse

Free verse is commonly used in contemporary poetry. Some poets have taken this technique as freedom from rhythm and rhyme because it changes people’s minds whimsically. Therefore, free verse is also called vers libre .

The best thing about free verse is that poets can imagine the forms of any sound through intonations instead of meters. Free verse gives greater freedom for choosing words and conveying their meanings to the audience . Since it depends upon patterned elements like sounds, phrases, sentences , and words, it is free of the artificiality of a typical poetic expression.

Synonyms of Free Verse

Though there is not exactly the same word with the same connotations , some words come close to it in meanings. These are blank verse , poesy, poetry, versification, vers libre.

Related posts:

• 10 Famous Free-Verse Poems
• 10 Best Free-Verse Poem Examples For Kids
• 15 Famous Short Free-Verse Poems
• Blank Verse
• 10 Best Blank Verse Poems
• 15 Best Shakespeare’s Blank Verse
• Sonnet 17:  Who Will Believe My Verse in Time to Come

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What is Free Verse?

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

T. S. Eliot said it didn’t exist. Robert Frost likened it to playing tennis with the net down. T. E. Hulme thought it was one way in which English verse might reinvent itself for the modern age. Walt Whitman is credited with inventing it. What is free verse? And what’s the difference between ‘free verse’ and vers libre ?

In this post, we’re going to offer a short introduction to the poetic form known as free verse, and introduce some of the debates surrounding the idea of ‘free’ verse.

First, the simple, concise definition: free verse is verse that does not rhyme and has no regular rhythm or metre. So, for instance, the following short poem by T. E. Hulme (1883-1917), arguably the first modern English poet , is free:

A touch of cold in the Autumn night – I walked abroad, And saw the ruddy moon lean over a hedge Like a red-faced farmer. I did not stop to speak, but nodded, And round about were the wistful stars With white faces like town children.

This poem, titled ‘Autumn’, was written in 1908 and is an example of free verse. Why? There are two chief reasons.

First, rhyme – or rather, the lack of it. If we look at the line endings, we can see that none of the words rhyme: night, abroad, hedge, farmer, and so on (good luck finding a rhyme for ‘children’!).

Second, rhythm – or what, in the field of literary analysis of poetry, is called metre (or, if you’re in the US, meter). Metre (or meter) is the ground plan for the rhythm of a poem. Hulme’s ‘Autumn’ doesn’t have a regular metre, because its rhythms vary: we get nine syllables and four heavy stresses in the first line, just four syllables and two heavy stresses in the second, and so on. Compare Hulme’s poem with this from Joyce Kilmer:

I think that I shall never see A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day, And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in Summer wear A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain; Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me, But only God can make a tree.

This poem, simply titled ‘Trees’, is not in free verse. Its two-line stanzas or couplets are rhymed, for one, so that ‘see’ and ‘tree’ rhyme, as do ‘prest’ and ‘breast’, and so on. What’s more, there is a regular rhythm or metre to the poem: ‘I think that I shall ne -ver see / A bill -board love -ly as a tree .’ Each alternate syllable is stressed, so we get eight syllables and four heavy stresses per line, with the heavy stresses being on the even syllables.

So, free verse is poetry that doesn’t rhyme and doesn’t have a regular rhythm or metre. It’s worth pointing out a common error which many people fall prey to, which is that ‘free verse’ is not the same as ‘blank verse’. This is an important point, as the two are often confused. Blank verse is unrhymed, like free verse, but unlike free verse, it has a regular metre: iambic pentameter, as in these lines from Shakespeare:

But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, Who is already sick and pale with grief, That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she. Be not her maid since she is envious. Her vestal livery is but sick and green, And none but fools do wear it. Cast it off!

These are the lines Romeo speaks when clapping eyes on Juliet. They’re unrhymed – breaks, sun, moon, grief, she, envious, and so on – but they do have a regular rhythm, which can be heard if you speak Romeo’s words out loud (there are ten syllables and five heavy stresses per line – so five iambs; this is known as iambic pentameter).

So these lines cannot be described as free verse. They are, instead, blank verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter.

Who invented free verse?

Who invented free verse? One of the people credited with inventing it is Walt Whitman (1819-92; pictured right), the pioneering American poet whose Leaves of Grass contains many sprawling, exuberant lines of verse, many of which don’t rhyme. Here’s a short example of Whitman’s free verse:

A noiseless patient spider, I mark’d where on a little promontory it stood isolated, Mark’d how to explore the vacant vast surrounding, It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself, Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.

And you O my soul where you stand, Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space, Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them, Till the bridge you will need be form’d, till the ductile anchor hold, Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.

As with Hulme’s ‘Autumn’, there’s no rhyme here (although note the way ‘hold’ delicately holds ‘soul’ within its grasp at the end), and there’s no regular rhythm or metre either.

But where did Whitman get the idea from? His decision to write in free verse may have been influenced by the Biblical Psalms, which can be read here . (The eighteenth-century poet Christopher Smart also wrote a wonderful poem which prefigures Whitman’s psalm-like free verse; rather pleasingly, a section of it is about his cat.)

What is certain is that Whitman’s influence ranged far and wide in nineteenth-century poetry, and he was read widely in France.

Free verse and  vers libre

In France, Whitman helped to inspire the French version of free verse, vers libre (which literally means ‘free verse’), which was pioneered in the 1870s and 1880s by the poet Gustave Kahn, the Symbolist Jules Laforgue, and others. An early example, from the early 1870s, is the short poem ‘ Marine ’ by Arthur Rimbaud.

Kahn was name-checked by T. E. Hulme, the author of ‘Autumn’, in his 1908 ‘ Lecture on Modern Poetry ’, which is one of the most important documents in twentieth-century poetry because of the almost revolutionary innovations Hulme suggests new poets introduce into their work. Chief among these is vers libre or free verse. Hulme writes:

The new technique was first definitely stated by Kahn. It consisted in a denial of a regular number of syllables as the basis of versification. The length of the line is long and short, oscillating with the images used by the poet; it follows the contours of his thoughts and is free rather than regular; to use a rough analogy, it is clothes made to order, rather than ready-made clothes. This is a very bald statement of it, and I am not concerned here so much with French poetry as with English. The kind of verse I advocate is not the same as vers-libre , I merely use the French as an example of the extraordinary effect that an emancipation of verse can have on poetic activity.

‘Clothes made to order, rather than ready-made clothes’: this strikes at the essence of what makes vers libre so useful for modern poets. Rather than having to follow a prescribed structure, the poet can dictate the structure themselves.

For one thing, this removes the need for ‘filler’ in poetry: where previously we might have found such redundant formations as ‘my feet did walk’ (rather than just ‘my feet walked’), now the poet could do away with such needless padding, which was only really there so the verse line contained all the right beats in all the right places.

This became a central tenet of imagism , a short-lived movement founded off the back of Hulme’s teaching, which – as the name suggests – placed the image at the heart of the poem, with its structure being dictated by the image.

But until now, we’ve been working on the assumption that free verse is straightforward. But T. S. Eliot didn’t think so. In fact, he went so far as to say that free verse doesn’t exist.

In an influential 1917 essay, ‘ Reflections on Vers Libre ’, Eliot argued that there is ‘no freedom in art’, and so no truly great poem can be written in verse that is truly ‘free’. What looks ‘free’ is actually tightly controlled by the poet, even if it doesn’t conform to a regular rhyme scheme or metre.

Indeed, all of the good ‘free’ verse that’s been written in English, Eliot argued, has been achieved by either starting with an established metre (such as the previously mentioned iambic pentameter, for example) and withdrawing from it, or by starting with no form (so completely free) and working towards an established metre.

If we return to Hulme’s ‘Autumn’, we can see that this is true just from considering the first two lines:

A touch of cold in the au -tumn night – I walked a- broad …

The italics show where the heavy stresses fall in Hulme’s lines. Although it’s not a perfect fit (‘in the’ gives us two unstressed syllables one after the other), the rhythm of these lines largely follows the iambic metre, where you have one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one, or (if you prefer) a light stress followed by a heavy one, e.g. ‘A touch ’.

What Hulme has done is give us four such feet in the first line (iambic tetrameter), and then just two feet in the second line (iambic dimeter). We can extend such an analysis to the rest of Hulme’s poem, noting where he sticks to such a metre and where he departs from it. In short, then, Hulme’s poem is free verse, but we should always consider how ‘free’ free verse really is.

William Carlos Williams, another prominent modernist poet of the twentieth century who wrote in free verse, didn’t like to call it ‘free’ verse either: he invented the term ‘variable foot’ to describe his own approach to poetic metre. He, too, writes poems that lack a regular rhyme scheme or metre, but how ‘free’ are they?

Here’s an example of his work, and one of the most famous poems written in free verse. It looks free, but this doesn’t mean there’s no artist’s control at work.

What is free verse? There are two answers to this question. One is the simple answer – it’s poem without rhyme or regular metre – and one is the more complex, knotty answer. Although ‘free verse’ exists, we should be wary of ignoring the powers of versification the poet has used, even in the most seemingly ‘free’ compositions, and still consider how a poem calls up particular effects regarding line endings, rhythm, and so on.

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19 thoughts on “What is Free Verse?”

Clear and instructive!

Very helpful. Thanks for the link to the Rimbaud. That was an opening, too!

This was very interesting, I always say wordpress is my free university online, you’re part of one of the greatest professors around

Thanks! That’s praise indeed. And what a great way to describe WordPress. I’ve gained a lot of insight (and discovered a fair few new writers) when browsing blogs on here.

You do have to put the time in reading the blogs, but when I have the time I do really try to read as many and learn as much as I can. Obviously discover new writers and really all kinds of blogs, painting, cooking, you name it. I find I can always get ideas from reading other things that are not related specifically to writing to use it as ideas for my own writing.

Thankyou for this. You have cleared up a lot for me there.

Thanks for this. It was very educative. Keep up the good work.

Thanks for this. It was very educative. I’ve been looking for an answer to this since.

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• Writing Tips

How to Write in Free Verse

• 5-minute read
• 18th August 2022

Free verse is a form of poetry that doesn’t follow a formal structure, rhythm, or rhyming scheme. Throwing off the constrictions of more rigid forms, like sonnets and limericks, allows you to express your ideas without having to follow so many rules, but that doesn’t mean writing in free verse is easy.

In fact, the lack of rules can make free verse more of a challenge because the writer has to figure out every detail – how long the poem will be, how many stanzas it should have, whether to use rhyme, etc.

If you’re feeling inspired to have a go at writing in free verse , but you’re not sure how to begin, you’ve come to the right place. In this post, we’ll guide you through the basic steps to creating free verse poetry:

1. Pick a theme.

2. Freewrite your ideas.

3. Draft your free verse poem.

4. Read the poem aloud.

5. Don’t forget to proofread!

To learn about each of these steps in detail, read on below.

1. Decide What Your Poem Will Be About

You may already know what the subject of your poem will be. Perhaps your tutor has assigned a topic, or you’re inspired to write about a favorite place or a cherished memory.

If you’re uncertain what your poem should be about, be sure to choose something that you have strong feelings about. Other than that, there really are no restrictions. Your poem could be about a first date, a breakup, a new sofa, or an old pair of shoes. If something makes you feel excited, heartbroken, ecstatic, or nostalgic, you can write a poem about it. 

2. Set a Timer and Start Freewriting

The next step is to jot down words and phrases connected with your chosen subject. You can do this on a screen if you like, but we suggest using a good old-fashioned pen and paper; freewriting is all about spilling your ideas onto the page without thinking too much. With a keyboard, it’s all too easy to hit the delete key if you’re unsure about something.

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Set yourself a time limit of, say, 10 or 15 minutes, and then write without stopping until the timer goes off. Write whatever comes to mind, whether it’s single words, phrases, or whole lines.

Try to engage all the senses as you do this. For example, if you chose to write about a first date, your notes might include pink, blinking neon sign, soft piano melody, spicy cologne, salty olives, and squishy velvet chairs .

3. Use Your Best Ideas in a First Draft

Now it’s time to write your poem! Expand on the ideas and images you’ve recorded to describe the scene or event your poem will explore. Enhance the mental images and emotions you want to portray by using poetic devices. Here are just a few suggestions:

• Alliteration is the repetition of the same sound at the beginning of a series of words (e.g., “once I wandered and wished ”). Even though the word “once” doesn’t begin with a “w” like “wandered” and “wished,” it’s still part of the alliteration here because it starts with the same sound.
• Metaphor is the presentation of one thing as something else entirely to show a similarity between them:

The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas (Alfred Noyes)

• Consonance is like alliteration, but the repeated sound can be in the middle or at the end of words, rather than at the beginning.
• Symbolism is the use of a tangible thing to represent something abstract (e.g., a rose for romantic love or a storm for emotional turmoil). If the same symbol is used repeatedly in a poem, it’s called a motif .
• Onomatopoeia occurs when a word imitates the sound of the thing it describes. Onomatopoeic words include flutter, rumble, sizzle, and splash.
• Repetition devices like epizeuxis and antanaclasis increase the intensity of emotions in a poem.

5. Read the Poem Out Loud

Poetry is meant to be spoken, so say the words aloud as you’re composing your poem. This will help you achieve the sounds and rhythm that best express your ideas. Think about the emotions evoked by the sounds of the words themselves. Do they roll smoothly off the tongue? Or are they tricky to enunciate, like tongue twisters?

A series of short, harsh sounds might imply violence or urgency, while longer vowels and soft consonants suggest something gentler.

Hearing your poem spoken aloud will also help you to instinctively know where to place commas and line breaks that prompt readers to pause and reflect on your words.

6. Check Your Poem for Errors

Even though poetry – especially free verse – does away with the normal rules of grammar and punctuation, you still want your poem to be free of spelling mistakes and other writing errors.

Our proofreaders are human beings – not robots – who know the difference between an accidental sentence fragment and a deliberate one used for literary effect. In other words, we proofread poetry without destroying it! If you want to see what we can do, check out our service today with a 500-word free trial .

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• Free Verse: An Essay on Prosody

In this Book

• Charles O. Hartman
• Published by: Princeton University Press
• Series: Princeton Legacy Library

To make sense of free verse" in theory or in practice, the whole study of prosody--the function of rhythm in poetry--must be revised and rethought. Stating this as the issue that poets and critics have faced in the past century, Charles Hartman takes up the challenge and develops a theory of prosody that includes the most characteristic forms of twentieth-century poetry. Originally published in 1981. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Table of Contents

• Title Page, Copyright
• Acknowledgments
• pp. vii-viii
• Introduction
• Chapter One
• Chapter Two
• Chapter Three
• Chapter Four
• Chapter Five
• Chapter Six
• pp. 106-129
• Chapter Seven
• pp. 130-143
• Chapter Eight
• pp. 144-172
• pp. 173-178
• pp. 179-186
• List of References
• pp. 187-194
• pp. 195-202

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Free Verse: An Essay on Prosody

• Princeton Legacy Library

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To make sense of free verse” in theory or in practice, the whole study of prosody—the function of rhythm in poetry—must be revised and rethought. Stating this as the issue that poets and critics have faced in the past century, Charles Hartman takes up the challenge and develops a theory of prosody that includes the most characteristic forms of twentieth-century poetry. Originally published in 1981. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

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What is Free verse Definition And Examples

Table of Contents

Free verse is a form of poetry that does not adhere to traditional metrical or rhyming patterns. Unlike structured poetic forms such as sonnets or haikus, free verse offers poets the freedom to create their own rhythm, line breaks, and overall structure. It emerged as a reaction against the constraints of traditional poetic forms, allowing poets to express themselves in a more flexible and unconventional manner. In this essay, we will explore the characteristics, history, and significance of free verse in the realm of poetry.

Characteristics of Free Verse:

• Absence of Meter: Free verse does not adhere to a specific metrical pattern. Unlike traditional forms such as iambic pentameter or tetrameter, free verse gives poets the liberty to determine the rhythm and pace of their lines. This absence of strict meter allows for a more natural flow and the use of varied line lengths.
• Lack of Rhyme: Free verse often lacks end rhyme or strict rhyme schemes. What is Free verse Definition And Examples Poets are not bound by the need to find words that rhyme, freeing them to focus on other aspects of their poetry, such as imagery, language, and emotional impact. What is Free verse Definition And Examples However, poets may choose to include internal rhymes or occasional rhymes for added effect.
• Flexible Line Breaks: Free verse permits poets to break lines wherever they choose, rather than adhering to traditional end-stopped or enjambment patterns. What is Free verse Definition And Examples This flexibility in line breaks allows poets to emphasize certain words or phrases, create pauses or caesuras, and shape the overall rhythm and cadence of their poems.
• Varied Structures: Free verse allows for a wide range of structures and forms within individual poems. Poets can experiment with stanza lengths, line lengths, and the overall organization of their verses. Some free verse poems may consist of unbroken blocks of text, while others may utilize irregular or fragmented structures to enhance the meaning or tone of the poem.
• Focus on Imagery and Language: Without the constraints of meter and rhyme, free verse poets often place a strong emphasis on vivid imagery, evocative language, and the exploration of complex themes. The freedom provided by free verse allows poets to use language creatively and experiment with different stylistic devices, such as repetition, alliteration, and metaphor.

History and Development of Free Verse:

Free verse emerged as a significant poetic form in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly with the advent of modernist poetry. What is Free verse Definition And Examples Influential poets such as Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, and T.S. Eliot played pivotal roles in popularizing and refining free verse as a legitimate form of expression.

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Walt Whitman is often considered the father of free verse. In his groundbreaking collection “Leaves of Grass,” published in 1855, Whitman introduced a new style of poetry characterized by long, sprawling lines, irregular line breaks, and a lyrical, conversational tone. What is Free verse Definition And Examples His poetry celebrated the individual, nature, and the diversity of American life, and his use of free verse reflected his belief in the freedom and democratic spirit of the American people.

Emily Dickinson, another influential poet of the 19th century, also experimented with free verse in her poems. What is Free verse Definition And Examples While she occasionally employed traditional forms, Dickinson frequently disregarded conventional rhyme and meter, opting for irregular line lengths and idiosyncratic punctuation. What is Free verse Definition And Examples Her unique use of free verse allowed her to explore complex emotional and existential themes in her concise and poignant poems.

In the early 20th century, the modernist movement brought further advancements to the development of free verse. What is Free verse Definition And Examples Poets like T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, and William Carlos Williams rejected the traditional conventions of poetry and sought new ways to express the fragmented and disillusioned realities of the modern world. What is Free verse Definition And Examples Their experimentation with free verse reflected the shifting cultural and artistic landscape of the time, challenging established norms and pushing the boundaries of poetic expression.

Significance of Free Verse:

Free verse has had a profound impact on the world of poetry, offering poets greater artistic freedom and opening up new avenues for self-expression. Its significance can be observed in several aspects:

• Liberation from Traditional Constraints: Free verse liberated poets from the constraints of strict metrical and rhyming patterns. What is Free verse Definition And Examples  It allowed them to focus on exploring innovative ideas, emotions, and themes, unrestricted by the rigid structures of traditional poetry.
• Authenticity and Natural Expression: Free verse enables poets to write in a more natural and conversational manner, capturing the rhythms and cadences of everyday speech. What is Free verse Definition And Examples It allows for a more authentic and direct expression of emotions, thoughts, and experiences.
• Versatility and Adaptability: Free verse’s flexible structure and lack of formal rules make it adaptable to a wide range of subjects and styles. What is Free verse Definition And Examples It has been used to explore personal experiences, social issues, political commentary, and experimental approaches to language and form.
• Reflecting the Complexity of Modern Life: Free verse emerged alongside the rise of industrialization, urbanization, and the increasing complexities of modern life. What is Free verse Definition And Examples Its fragmentation, lack of structure, and diverse forms mirror the fragmented and diverse nature of modern existence, providing a suitable vehicle for expressing the complexities and contradictions of the modern world.
• Influence on Poetic Movements: Free verse has influenced numerous poetic movements and styles, including imagism, confessional poetry, and the Beat generation. What is Free verse Definition And Examples It has inspired poets to push boundaries, experiment with language and form, and challenge conventional notions of poetry.

Examples Of Free verse

• “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman: I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. I loafe and invite my soul, I lean and loafe at my ease…observing a spear of summer grass.

In this excerpt from “Song of Myself,” Whitman showcases the free verse style that he is known for. The poem does not follow a strict meter or rhyme scheme but instead allows the lines to flow naturally, emphasizing the celebration of the self and the connection to the world.

• “I heard a Fly buzz – when I died” by Emily Dickinson: I heard a Fly buzz – when I died – The Stillness in the Room Was like the Stillness in the Air – Between the Heaves of Storm –

This excerpt from Dickinson’s poem demonstrates her use of free verse. The lines have irregular lengths and do not follow a specific rhyme pattern. The lack of strict structure enhances the poem’s contemplative and introspective tone.

• “The Waste Land” by T.S. Eliot: April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain.

Eliot’s renowned poem “The Waste Land” is an example of free verse with its varying line lengths and absence of rhyme. The poem combines different voices, allusions, and fragmented images to capture the fragmented and disillusioned nature of the modern world.

Free verse is a form of poetry that offers poets the freedom to break away from traditional metrical and rhyming patterns. What is Free verse Definition And Examples It allows for flexible line breaks, absence of strict meter, and a focus on imagery, language, and natural expression. What is Free verse Definition And Examples Free verse emerged as a significant form of poetic expression in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with influential poets such as Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, and T.S. Eliot playing pivotal roles in popularizing and refining the style. What is Free verse Definition And Examples Free verse has had a profound impact on the world of poetry, liberating poets from traditional constraints, enabling authentic expression, reflecting the complexity of modern life, and influencing various poetic movements.

Q. Is free verse considered easier to write than structured poetry?

Ans. Free verse does not adhere to the rigid rules of structured poetry, such as specific meter and rhyme schemes. While the absence of these constraints may provide more freedom, it also presents challenges. Writing compelling free verse requires a strong command of language, imagery, and rhythm, as well as a careful consideration of line breaks and overall structure. So, while it may be less restrictive in form, it still demands skill and creativity from the poet.

Q. Can free verse include rhyme and meter?

Ans. Although free verse is characterized by its lack of strict rhyme and meter, poets have the freedom to incorporate elements of rhyme and meter into their free verse poems if they choose. This can be done for emphasis, musicality, or to create specific effects within the poem. However, it is important to note that such elements are not obligatory in free verse and are used at the poet’s discretion.

Q. How do poets determine line breaks in free verse?

Ans. In free verse, poets have the liberty to determine line breaks based on their intended rhythm, emphasis, or overall aesthetic effect. Line breaks can be used to create pauses, enhance certain words or phrases, or guide the reader’s interpretation. Poets often rely on their ear for the natural flow of language or experiment with different line breaks to find the most effective arrangement for their poem.

Q. Can free verse convey specific themes or emotions effectively?

Ans. Yes, free verse is a versatile form that can effectively convey a wide range of themes, emotions, and experiences. Its flexibility allows poets to experiment with language, imagery, and structure to capture and express complex ideas and emotions. Free verse can evoke a sense of intimacy, spontaneity, and raw emotion, making it well-suited for exploring personal, social, and universal themes.

Q. Can free verse be used in other languages besides English?

Ans. Yes, free verse is not limited to the English language. It can be employed in various languages and cultural contexts. Just like in English, free verse in other languages allows poets to experiment with form, rhythm, and structure, offering them the freedom to express themselves authentically and creatively.

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Some Reflections on Eliot's "Reflections on Vers Libre": on Verse and Free Verse

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When poets write manifestos about what poetry is or ought to be, they’re often writing veiled defenses or explanations of their own work. T. S. Eliot is no exception. In his 1921 essay "The Metaphysical Poets," he remarks that "it appears likely that poets in our civilization…must be difficult"— prophetic words, considering that "The Waste Land" would appear a year later. In 1923, Eliot published another essay, " Ulysses , Order, and Myth," in which he asserts that "In manipulating a continuous parallel between contemporaneity and antiquity, Mr. Joyce is pursuing a method which others must pursue after him," since it was "a way of controlling, of ordering, of giving a shape and a significance to the immense panorama of futility and anarchy which is contemporary history." Sound familiar? Tiresias, the Grail myth, The Golden Bough —Eliot might as well have been, with a doff of the hat to Walt Whitman , writing a review of his own hot-off-the-presses poem.

Perhaps most telling of all is Eliot’s 1917 essay "Reflections on Vers Libre ." Written two years after the publication of " The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock ," this essay implicitly warns us not to consider any serious poem not written in a traditional form as "free verse." For, as Eliot explains, " Vers libre does not exist….And as the so-called vers libre which is good is anything but ‘free,’ it can better be defended under some other label." What keeps memorable free verse from being free, Eliot suggests, is its constant vacillation between adherence to, and departure from, rhyme and regular meter. "It is this contrast between fixity and flux…which is the very life of verse," Eliot claims, concluding that "the division between Conservative Verse and vers libre does not exist, for there is only good verse, bad verse, and chaos."

"Prufrock" proves him right. There’s hardly a passage in the poem that does not achieve its effects—its wit and edge and pathos—from this "contrast between fixity and flux." Consider the poem’s opening:

     Let us go then, you and I,      When the evening is spread out against the sky      Like a patient etherized upon a table.

The first two lines, though they could hardly be mistaken for Alexander Pope , are formally regular: the speaker’s confidently romantic invitation finds its parallel in a strictly rhyming couplet. Granted, the second line is a foot longer than the first, but this alteration only enhances the poem’s passionate expansiveness. But what happens next? Not "And we will link our hands until we die"; not "For I forswear forever being shy!"; but rather the searingly anticlimactic third line, whose bathos, like the happier lines it follows, has a formal analogue: its failure to rhyme with the first two.

Eliot repeats this technique—this "constant evasion and recognition of regularity," as he puts it in the Vers Libre essay—many times throughout "Prufrock." Indeed, in the poem’s most psychologically and thematically raw moments—the times when Prufrock lets his guard down most—Eliot takes his biggest liberties with rhyme and meter. The "overwhelming question" of the first stanza has no answer; fittingly, the line is the only one besides the third that doesn’t rhyme with another one. When Prufrock tremulously asks, thirty or so lines later, "Do I dare / Disturb the universe?" he both uses the first-person pronoun—stripped of its accompanying "you" (line 1) and its protective quotes ("And indeed there will be time / To wonder, ‘Do I dare?’ and ‘Do I dare?’"(lines 37-8)—for the first time in the poem, and utters the shortest line in the entire poem. Once again, form breaks down when the poem’s protagonist also falters. Although he is capable, elsewhere in the poem, of basking in the lulling comforts of rhyme—particularly the three "And I have known them all" and the two "And would it have been worth it…" stanzas—Prufrock never finds a formal foothold sturdy enough to cling to for more than a few lines, succumbing to awkward almost-rhymes ("I should have been a pair of ragged claws/Scuttling across the floors of silent seas") and sudden stark one-liners: "I do not think that they will sing to me." The result is hardly "chaos," but one of the greatest poems of the last century.

Other poets followed suit. Robert Frost ’s endlessly supple blank verse; Elizabeth Bishop ’s stanzas with their modulating but ever-present rhymes; E. E. Cummings ’ syntactically wild poems that—look closely!—turn out to be sonnets; and so many other poets’ formal experiments give further proof of the validity and importance of Eliot’s insights.

But it’s easy to forget the bright example of Eliot and others shining past the fog of all the recent debates about the purpose and value of form in poetry. I admit a personal stake in the matter: as someone who has been labeled a "New Formalist," I can’t help being irritated at the narrow assumptions that lurk behind this term and its accompanying manifestos. Aren’t all interesting poets interested in form? Haven’t some of my most ambitious poems, miserable failures though they may have been, involved an attempt to achieve the "constant vacillation" that Eliot so powerfully describes? Fortunately, the form versus freedom debate seems to have subsided a bit during the last few years, and poets have gone back to the quieter but infinitely more gratifying business of writing poems. But even so, my own experience of being squeezed into a category I didn’t believe in, as well as the ever-inspiring reading of Eliot and so many other poets I love, prompts me to offer this advice to aspiring young poets: life may be full of painful choices, but as for whether to write in form or free verse …well, this is one you’re really much better off not making.

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Free verse : an essay on prosody

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George Longenecker: AI goes to college 

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This commentary is by George Longenecker of Middlesex.

I wanted to find out how easy it would be for a student to use artificial intelligence instead of their own minds. It’s been a few years since I retired and AI has made huge strides.

ChatGPT (Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer) is a  chatbot  developed by  OpenAI . Launched in 2022, AI is the fastest-growing software application in history, with 100 million users and a value of $80 billion.  It’s only one of several AI programs

During my career I taught English, geography, history and government at Vermont Tech (now Vermont State University, VTSU).  Knowing the kinds of assignments faculty assign and how they’re graded, I tried giving AI the work. I signed up for ChatGPT and put it to work. 

I gave Chat a topic in U.S. history. Chat churned out “John Adams: A Statesman’s Legacy in American Presidency,” 1,000 words in under 30 seconds.  The essay covered the issues and problems of the second president’s life and legacy better than most of my former students would have. Then I tried a president who doesn’t have a best-selling biography, a movie and a national historic park. I gave Chat the campaign of William Henry Harrison, the ninth president, who died after a month in office.  Again, Chat was done almost instantly.  I might have been more critical of Harrison for bragging about killing off Native people, but the essay mentioned his slogan “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too” and certainly deserved an A-.  Chat was acing U.S. History.

Millions of college students from Alabama to Wyoming take U.S. History and write essays about long-gone presidents.  Maybe some Vermont topics would stymie Chat, or at least make her think a little longer. I asked Chat to write an essay on how Senator Randy Brock (R Franklin) of Vermont defies political characterization.  She did pretty well for 30 seconds of work, though she missed that Brock served as state auditor and supports LGBTQ rights. Still, Chat got at least a B+. Maybe somebody no longer in office would give Chat pause. I asked her to write about former state senator Scudder Parker’s 2006 unsuccessful Democratic campaign for governor of Vermont. My AI friend was just as quick and churned out a chatty essay about the quixotic, precedent-setting campaign. Chat knew Vermont history and politics better than most Vermonters. It was an A essay 

I was about ready to tell my friends still in the classroom to retire and turn it over to Chat, but decided to have one last try — this time in poetry — something we covered in English comp-lit.  An essay on Emily Dickinson’s poetry was excellent, with plenty of apt quotes. For a final challenge I asked Chat to write a free verse poem about flowers and hummingbirds. She was just awful and didn’t follow instructions for the assignment. Maybe poetry is too subjective for AI. 

Erika Nichols-Frazer, writing & humanities coordinator at VTSU Johnson, said: “As a poet and scholar of literature, I usually feel that creative writing written by Chat GPT/AI in general has a very stilted, stiff voice, little emotion or originality, and often awkwardness and downright errors.”

Professor Mary Findley, in the Department of Literature and Writing at VTSU Randolph said: “There is a huge push with AI companies to now produce more ‘human sounding’ essays. … It’s a horrible thing for anyone teaching English. … We are already dealing with the texting generation that has no clue how to put a sentence together with proper capitalization and punctuation.”

Author Kim Ward, who teaches English part-time at Norwich University, said: “I would say the biggest way teachers are working to combat any issues of submitted AI generated work is through scaffolding assignments so that students have to speak to the subjects with personal answers and build their papers through smaller assignments. Chat GPT has trouble answering anything that isn’t extant on the internet already.” 

Faculty I asked agreed this approach, one I used in teaching technical writing, cuts down on the possibility of using Chat to cheat. However, cheating the kinds of assignments used in many classes, like the ones I gave Chat, is remarkably easy to get away with. AI is savvy in its ability to change sentence structure just enough so essays are not identical.  

It takes time to chase down AI-generated cheating. Full-time faculty have a lot of essays to grade and are expected to serve on committees and to publish. Part-time faculty often have other jobs. Faculty want to teach and write, not be plagiarism police. Giving step-by step assignments in writing classes is a partial solution. In history classes, it would be easier just to give tests and not assign essays. 

I spent years teaching students to research, organize ideas, read, write and think about issues. There are huge implications if all a student has to do is log in to an AI chatbot and with a few clicks complete a major portion of their classwork.   

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Free Verse: An Essay on Prosody (Princeton Legacy Library, 708) Hardcover – April 19, 2016

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To make sense of free verse" in theory or in practice, the whole study of prosody--the function of rhythm in poetry--must be revised and rethought. Stating this as the issue that poets and critics have faced in the past century, Charles Hartman takes up the challenge and develops a theory of prosody that includes the most characteristic forms of twentieth-century poetry. Originally published in 1981. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

• Print length 212 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Princeton University Press
• Publication date April 19, 2016
• Dimensions 6.14 x 0.5 x 9.21 inches
• ISBN-10 069163887X
• ISBN-13 978-0691638874
• See all details

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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Princeton University Press (April 19, 2016)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 212 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 069163887X
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0691638874
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.05 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.14 x 0.5 x 9.21 inches
• #4,971 in Gothic & Romantic Literary Criticism (Books)
• #10,026 in Poetry Literary Criticism (Books)
• #43,916 in Literary Criticism & Theory

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