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{{distinguish|Blank verse}}
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[[File:Is 5-e. e. cummings-0091.tif|thumb|right|alt=A free verse poem by E. E. Cummings|''Is 5'' by [[E. E. Cummings]], an example of free verse.]]
[[File:Is 5-e. e. cummings-0091.tif|thumb|right|alt=A free verse poem by E. E. Cummings|"Is 5" by [[E. E. Cummings]], an example of free verse.]]
'''Free verse''' is an open form of [[poetry]] which does not use a prescribed or regular [[Metre (poetry)|meter]] or [[rhyme]]<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Abbs | first1 = Peter | last2 = Richardson | first2 = John | title = The Forms of Poetry: A practical study guide for English | date = 15 November 1990 | publisher = [[Cambridge University Press]] | edition = 15th | page = 137 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=y0p4QgAACAAJ | isbn = 978-0-521-37160-5}}</ref> and tends to follow the rhythm of [[natural speech|natural]] or irregular speech. Free verse encompasses a large range of poetic form, and the distinction between free verse and other forms (such as prose) is often ambiguous.<ref name="deFord"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Kirby-Smith |first1=H. T. |title=The origins of free verse |date=1996 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |location=Ann Arbor |isbn=0472106988 |page=43}}</ref>
'''Free verse''' is an open form of [[poetry]] which does not use a prescribed or regular [[Metre (poetry)|meter]] or [[rhyme]]<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Abbs | first1 = Peter | last2 = Richardson | first2 = John | title = The Forms of Poetry: A practical study guide for English | date = 15 November 1990 | publisher = [[Cambridge University Press]] | edition = 15th | page = 137 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=y0p4QgAACAAJ | isbn = 978-0-521-37160-5}}</ref> and tends to follow the rhythm of [[natural speech|natural]] or irregular speech.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Free verse |url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/education/glossary/free-verse |access-date=2025-12-09 |website=The Poetry Foundation}}</ref> It encompasses a large range of poetic form, and its distinction to other forms (such as [[prose]]) is often ambiguous.<ref name="deFord"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Kirby-Smith |first1=H. T. |title=The origins of free verse |date=1996 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |location=Ann Arbor |isbn=0472106988 |page=43}}</ref>  In general, the core characteristic of free verse is its flexibility.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-11-08 |title=Free Verse Explained: What It Is & How to Write It - Literary Devices |url=https://literarydevices.net/free-verse-explained-what-it-is-how-to-write-it/ |access-date=2025-12-09 |language=en-us}}</ref>


==History==
==History==
Though individual examples of English free verse poetry surfaced before the 20th-century (parts of John Milton's ''[[Samson Agonistes]]'' or the majority of [[Walt Whitman]]'s poetry, for example),<ref name="deFord">{{cite book |last1=DeFord |first1=Sara |last2=Harriss |first2=Clarinda |title=Forms of verse: British and American |date=1971 |publisher=Appleton-Century-Crofts |location=New York |isbn=0390260002 |pages=292–293}}</ref> free verse is generally considered an early 20th century innovation of the late 19th-century French ''vers libre''.<ref name="deFord"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Kirby-Smith |first1=Henry Tompkins |title=The origins of free verse |date=1996 |publisher=the University of Michigan press |location=Ann Arbor (Mich.) |isbn=0472106988 |page=10}}</ref>
Though individual examples of English free verse poetry surfaced before the 20th century (parts of John Milton's ''[[Samson Agonistes]]'' or the majority of [[Walt Whitman]]'s poetry, for example),<ref name="deFord">{{cite book |last1=DeFord |first1=Sara |last2=Harriss |first2=Clarinda |title=Forms of verse: British and American |date=1971 |publisher=Appleton-Century-Crofts |location=New York |isbn=0390260002 |pages=292–293}}</ref> free verse is generally considered an early 20th century innovation of the late 19th-century French ''vers libre''.<ref name="deFord"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Kirby-Smith |first1=Henry Tompkins |title=The origins of free verse |date=1996 |publisher=the University of Michigan press |location=Ann Arbor (Mich.) |isbn=0472106988 |page=10}}</ref> However, the sort of cadencing now recognized in free verse can be traced back at least as far as the [[Biblical Hebrew|archaic "Hebrew]] [[psalmist]]" poetry of the [[Bible]].<ref name="allen" /> The title of "American father of free verse" has been bestowed upon Walt Whitman.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-05-17 |title=Walt Whitman 101 |url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/70243/walt-whitman-101 |access-date=2025-12-09 |website=The Poetry Foundation}}</ref>


[[T. E. Hulme]] and [[F. S. Flint]] first introduced the form to the London-based [[Poets' Club]] in 1909.<ref>Pondrom, Cryrena  ''The Road from Paris, French Influence on English Poetry'' 1900-1920 Cambridge University Press 1974 {{ISBN|978-0-521-13119-3}}</ref> This later became the heart of the [[Imagism|Imagist]] movement<ref>F. S. Flint, ''The History of Imagism'' Essay in The Egoist May 1915</ref> through Flint's advocacy of the genre.<ref>Jones Peter (editor) Introduction to ''Imagist Poetry'' Penguin Books {{ISBN|0-14-042147-5}}</ref> Imagism, in the wake of French Symbolism (i.e. vers libre of French Symbolist poets<ref>Pratt William ''Introduction to The Imagist Poem, modern poetry in miniature'' Uno Press 1963 edition {{ISBN|978-0-9728143-8-6}}</ref>) was the wellspring out of which the main current of [[Modernist poetry|Modernism]] in English flowed.<ref>Pratt William Preface to ''The Imagist Poem, modern poetry in miniature'' Uno Press 1963 edition {{ISBN|978-0-9728143-8-6}}</ref> [[T. S. Eliot]] later identified this as "the point de repere usually taken as the starting point of modern poetry,"<ref>Eliot T. S. Address ''To Criticize the Critic''  to Washington University June 1953, Faber & Faber 1965</ref> as hundreds of poets were led to adopt vers libre as their medium.<ref>Untermeyer, Louis, Preface to ''Modern American Poetry'' Harcourt Brace& Co New York 1950</ref>
[[T. E. Hulme]] and [[F. S. Flint]] first introduced the form to the London-based [[Poets' Club]] in 1909.<ref>Pondrom, Cryrena  ''The Road from Paris, French Influence on English Poetry'' 1900-1920 Cambridge University Press 1974 {{ISBN|978-0-521-13119-3}}</ref> This form later became the heart of the [[Imagism|Imagist]] movement<ref>F. S. Flint, ''The History of Imagism'' Essay in The Egoist May 1915</ref> through Flint's advocacy of the genre.<ref>Jones Peter (editor) Introduction to ''Imagist Poetry'' Penguin Books {{ISBN|0-14-042147-5}}</ref> Imagism, in the wake of [[French Symbolism]] (i.e. ''vers libre'' of French Symbolist poets<ref>Pratt William ''Introduction to The Imagist Poem, modern poetry in miniature'' Uno Press 1963 edition {{ISBN|978-0-9728143-8-6}}</ref>), was the wellspring out of which the main current of [[Modernist poetry|Modernism]] in English flowed.<ref>Pratt William Preface to ''The Imagist Poem, modern poetry in miniature'' Uno Press 1963 edition {{ISBN|978-0-9728143-8-6}}</ref> [[T. S. Eliot]] later identified this as "the ''point de repere'' usually taken as the starting point of modern poetry,"<ref>Eliot T. S. Address ''To Criticize the Critic''  to Washington University June 1953, Faber & Faber 1965</ref> since hundreds of poets were led to adopt ''vers libre'' as their medium.<ref>Untermeyer, Louis, Preface to ''Modern American Poetry'' Harcourt Brace& Co New York 1950</ref>
 
In the 21st century, most published poems are considered to be free verse.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=LitCharts |url=https://www.litcharts.com/literary-devices-and-terms/free-verse |access-date=2025-12-09 |website=LitCharts |language=en}}</ref> Free verse is one of the more popular forms of poetry today and is considered the "norm."<ref name=":0" />


==Definition==
==Definition==
It is said that verse is free "when it is not primarily obtained by the metered line."<ref name="allen" /> Free verse does not "proceed by a strict set of rules … is not a literary type, and does not conform to a formal structure," but it is not considered to be completely free. In 1948, Charles Allen wrote, "The only freedom cadenced verse obtains is a limited freedom from the tight demands of the metered line."<ref name="allen">{{cite journal |last1=Allen |first1=Charles |title=Cadenced Free Verse |journal=College English |date=1948 |volume=9 |issue=4 |pages=195–199 |doi=10.2307/371561|jstor=371561 }}</ref> Free verse is as equally subject to elements of form (the poetic line, which may vary freely; rhythm; strophes or strophic rhythms; stanzaic patterns and rhythmic units or cadences) as other forms of poetry. [[Donald Hall]] goes as far as to say that "the ''form'' of free verse is as binding and as liberating as the ''form'' of a [[rondeau (poetry)|rondeau]],"<ref>Donald Hall, in the essay 'Goatfoot, Milktongue, Twinbird' in the book of 0-472-40000-2.</ref> and [[T. S. Eliot]] wrote, "No verse is free for the man who wants to do a good job."<ref>Eliot quote from the essay, "The Music of Poetry" Jackson (1 January 1942) ASIN B0032Q49RO</ref>
It is said<sup>''[[Template:By whom|[by whom?]]]''</sup> that verse is free "when it is not primarily obtained by the metered line."<ref name="allen" /> Free verse does not have "predetermined patterns that define many other poetic forms," but it is not considered to be completely free.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2014-02-15 |title=Free Verse - Definition and Examples of Free Verse |url=https://literarydevices.net/free-verse/ |access-date=2025-12-09 |language=en-us}}</ref> In 1948, Charles Allen wrote, "The only freedom cadenced verse obtains is a limited freedom from the tight demands of the metered line."<ref name="allen">{{cite journal |last1=Allen |first1=Charles |title=Cadenced Free Verse |journal=College English |date=1948 |volume=9 |issue=4 |pages=195–199 |doi=10.2307/371561|jstor=371561 }}</ref> Free verse is as equally subject to elements of form (the poetic line, rhythm, strophes or strophic rhythms, stanzaic patterns, and rhythmic units or cadences) as other forms of poetry.<ref name=":0" /> [[Donald Hall]] goes as far as to say that "the ''form'' of free verse is as binding and as liberating as the ''form'' of a [[rondeau (poetry)|rondeau]],"<ref>Donald Hall, in the essay 'Goatfoot, Milktongue, Twinbird' in the book of 0-472-40000-2.</ref> and [[T. S. Eliot]] wrote, "No verse is free for the man who wants to do a good job."<ref>Eliot quote from the essay, "The Music of Poetry" Jackson (1 January 1942) ASIN B0032Q49RO</ref>


[[Kenneth Allott]], the poet and critic, said the adoption by some poets of ''[[vers libre]]'' arose from "mere desire for novelty, the imitation of [[Walt Whitman|Whitman]], the study of [[English literature|Jacobean]] dramatic [[blank verse]], and the awareness of what French poets had already done to the [[French alexandrine|alexandrine]] in France."<ref>Introductory Note by Kenneth Allott (ed.) ''The Penguin Book of Contemporary Verse'', [[Penguin Books]], Harmondsworth, England 1950</ref> The American critic [[John Livingston Lowes]] in 1916 observed "Free verse may be written as very beautiful [[prose]]; prose may be written as very beautiful free verse. Which is which?"<ref>Lowes, Livingston John, ''Nation'' Feb 1916</ref>
[[Kenneth Allott]], the poet and critic, said the adoption by some poets of ''[[vers libre]]'' arose from "mere desire for novelty, the imitation of [[Walt Whitman|Whitman]], the study of [[English literature|Jacobean]] dramatic [[blank verse]], and the awareness of what French poets had already done to the [[French alexandrine|alexandrine]] in France."<ref>Introductory Note by Kenneth Allott (ed.) ''The Penguin Book of Contemporary Verse'', [[Penguin Books]], Harmondsworth, England 1950</ref> The American critic [[John Livingston Lowes]] in 1916 observed "Free verse may be written as very beautiful [[prose]]; prose may be written as very beautiful free verse. Which is which?"<ref>Lowes, Livingston John, ''Nation'' Feb 1916</ref>


Some poets have considered free verse restrictive in its own way. In 1922, [[Robert Bridges]] voiced his reservations in the essay "[[Humdrum and Harum-Scarum]]". [[Robert Frost]], in a comment regarding [[Carl Sandburg]], later remarked that writing free verse was like "playing tennis without a net." Sandburg responded saying, in part, "There have been poets who could and did play more than one game of tennis with unseen rackets, volleying airy and fantastic balls over an insubstantial net, on a frail moonlight fabric of a court."<ref>'' The Robert Frost Encyclopedia''. Nancy Lewis Tuten, John Zubizarreta. Greenwood Press (2001). Page 318. {{ISBN|9780313294648}}</ref><ref>Lingeman, Richard. "A Poet for the People: ''Carl Sandberg: A Biography''".  ''Los Angeles Times''. 14 July 1991.</ref> [[William Carlos Williams]] said, "Being an art form, a verse cannot be free in the sense of having no limitations or guiding principles."<ref>Free Verse, ''Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics'', 2nd Ed, 1975</ref> [[Yvor Winters]], the poet and critic, said, "…the greatest fluidity of statement is possible where the greatest clarity of form prevails. … The free verse that is really verse—the best that is, of [[William Carlos Williams|W.C. Williams]], [[H. D.]], [[Marianne Moore]], [[Wallace Stevens]], and [[Ezra Pound]]—is, in its peculiar fashion, the [[antithesis]] of free."<ref>[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008999461&view=1up&seq=11] Winters, Yvor. ''Primitivism and Decadence: A Study of American Experimental Poetry''. Arrow Editions, New York, 1937. p. 7</ref>
Some poets have considered free verse restrictive in its own way. In 1922, [[Robert Bridges]] voiced his reservations in the essay "[[Humdrum and Harum-Scarum]]".<ref>{{Cite book |first=Robert |last=Bridges |url=http://archive.org/details/collectedessaysp0000unse_z5w2 |title=Collected Essays Papers Etc of Robert Bridges 2 and 3 " Humdrum & Harum-Scarum, A Lecture on Free Verse" and " Poetic Diction" |date=1928 |others=Internet Archive}}</ref> [[Robert Frost]], in a comment regarding [[Carl Sandburg]], later remarked that "Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down."<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-12-13 |title=Free Verse Vs Structure: Robert Frost’s Insight |url=https://www.learnwinshine.com/quotes/robert-frost-quote-10024/ |access-date=2025-12-09 |language=en-US}}</ref> Sandburg responded saying, in part, "There have been poets who could and did play more than one game of tennis with unseen rackets, volleying airy and fantastic balls over an insubstantial net, on a frail moonlight fabric of a court."<ref>'' The Robert Frost Encyclopedia''. Nancy Lewis Tuten, John Zubizarreta. Greenwood Press (2001). Page 318. {{ISBN|9780313294648}}</ref><ref>Lingeman, Richard. "A Poet for the People: ''Carl Sandburg: A Biography''".  ''Los Angeles Times''. 14 July 1991.</ref> [[William Carlos Williams]] said, "Being an art form, a verse cannot be free in the sense of having no limitations or guiding principles."<ref>Free Verse, ''Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics'', 2nd Ed, 1975</ref> [[Yvor Winters]], the poet and critic, said, "…the greatest fluidity of statement is possible where the greatest clarity of form prevails. … The free verse that is really verse—the best that is, of [[William Carlos Williams|W.C. Williams]], [[H. D.]], [[Marianne Moore]], [[Wallace Stevens]], and [[Ezra Pound]]—is, in its peculiar fashion, the [[antithesis]] of free."<ref>[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008999461&view=1up&seq=11] Winters, Yvor. ''Primitivism and Decadence: A Study of American Experimental Poetry''. Arrow Editions, New York, 1937. p. 7</ref>
 
In [[Welsh poetry]], however, the term has a completely different meaning. According to [[Jan Morris]], "When Welsh poets speak of Free Verse, they mean forms like the [[sonnet]] or the [[ode]], which obey the same rules as English [[Metre (poetry)|poesy]]. [[Cerdd dafod|Strict Metre]]s verse still honors the [[Cynghanedd|immensely complex rules]] laid down for correct poetic composition 600 years ago."<ref>Jan Morris (1984), ''The Matter of Wales: Epic Views of a Small Country'', [[Oxford University Press]]. Page 152.</ref>


In [[Welsh poetry]], however, the term has a completely different meaning. According to [[Jan Morris]], "When Welsh poets speak of Free Verse, they mean forms like the [[sonnet]] or the [[ode]], which obey the same rules as English [[Metre (poetry)|poesy]]. [[Cerdd dafod|Strict Metre]]s verse still honours the [[Cynghanedd|immensely complex rules]] laid down for correct poetic composition 600 years ago."<ref>Jan Morris (1984), ''The Matter of Wales: Epic Views of a Small Country'', [[Oxford University Press]]. Page 152.</ref>
In general, there seems to be disagreement on whether free verse is restricted by foundational poetry conventions or not.


==Vers libre==
==''Vers libre''==
'''Vers libre''' is a free-verse poetic form of flexibility, complexity, and naturalness<ref>Hover, Richard  ''Poet in Town'' Interview with Boston Record Sept 1898</ref> created in the late 19th century in France, in 1886. It was largely through the activities of ''La Vogue'', a weekly journal founded by [[Gustave Kahn]],<ref name="autogenerated1914">Scott, Clive, Vers libre: the emergence of free verse in France, 1886-1914 Clarendon Press, Oxford {{ISBN|978-0-19-815159-3}}</ref> as well as the appearance of a band of poets unequaled at any one time in the history of French poetry.<ref>Hulme, T. E. Lecture on ''Modern Poetry'', Kensington Town Hall 1914</ref> Their style of poetry was dubbed "Counter-Romanticism" and it was led by [[Paul Verlaine|Verlaine]], [[Arthur Rimbaud|Rimbaud]], [[Stéphane Mallarmé|Mallarmé]], [[Jules Laforgue|Laforgue]] and [[Tristan Corbière|Corbière.]]<ref>Pratt, William,'' Introduction to The Influence of French Symbolism on Modern American Poetry'' by René Taupin, AMS Press Inc, New York 1985 {{ISBN|0-404-61579-1}}</ref> It was concerned with [[synesthesia|synaethesis]] (the harmony or equilibrium of sensation)<ref>I A Richards & C.K.Ogden ''The Foundations of Aesthetics'', Lear Publisher, New York 1925</ref> and later described as "the moment when French poetry began to take consciousness of itself as poetry."<ref>Maritain Jaques, ''The Situation of Poetry Now'', Philosophical Library, New York, 1955</ref> Gustave Kahn was commonly supposed to have invented the term vers libre and according to [[F. S. Flint]], he "was undoubtedly the first theorist of the technique(s)."<ref>Flint, F. S., ''Contemporary French Poetry'', The Poetry Review Aug 1912</ref> Later in 1912, Robert de Souza published his conclusion on the genre, voicing that<ref>de Souza, Robert, ''Du Rythme en Francais'', Welter, Paris 1912</ref> "A vers libre was possible which would keep all the essential characteristics of ''vers Classique'', but would free it from the encumbrances which usage had made appear indispensable."<ref name="autogenerated1986">Taupin, René, ''The Influence of French Symbolism on Modern American Poetry'' (1986),(trans William Pratt) AMS Studies in Modern Literature, {{ISBN|0-404-61579-1}}</ref> Thus the practice of vers libre was not the abandoning of pattern, but the creation of an original and complicated metrical form for each poem.<ref>Pondrom, Cryrena The Road from Paris, French Influence on English Poetry 1900-1920 Cambridge University Press 1974 {{ISBN|978-0-521-13119-3}}</ref>
'''''Vers libre''''' is a free-verse poetic form of flexibility, complexity, and naturalness<ref>Hover, Richard  ''Poet in Town'' Interview with Boston Record Sept 1898</ref> created in France in 1886.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jones |first=P. Mansell |date=1947 |title=The First Theory of the "Vers Libre" |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3717225 |journal=The Modern Language Review |volume=42 |issue=2 |pages=207–214 |doi=10.2307/3717225 |issn=0026-7937|url-access=subscription }}</ref> It was largely through the activities of ''La Vogue'', a weekly journal founded by [[Gustave Kahn]],<ref name="autogenerated1914">Scott, Clive, Vers libre: the emergence of free verse in France, 1886-1914 Clarendon Press, Oxford {{ISBN|978-0-19-815159-3}}</ref> as well as the appearance of a band of poets unequaled at any one time in the history of French poetry.<ref>Hulme, T. E. Lecture on ''Modern Poetry'', Kensington Town Hall 1914</ref> Their style of poetry was dubbed "Counter-Romanticism" and it was led by [[Paul Verlaine|Verlaine]], [[Arthur Rimbaud|Rimbaud]], [[Stéphane Mallarmé|Mallarmé]], [[Jules Laforgue|Laforgue]], and [[Tristan Corbière|Corbière.]]<ref>Pratt, William,'' Introduction to The Influence of French Symbolism on Modern American Poetry'' by René Taupin, AMS Press Inc, New York 1985 {{ISBN|0-404-61579-1}}</ref> It is concerned with [[synesthesia]] (the harmony or equilibrium of sensation)<ref>I A Richards & C.K.Ogden ''The Foundations of Aesthetics'', Lear Publisher, New York 1925</ref> and later described as "the moment when French poetry began to take consciousness of itself as poetry."<ref>Maritain Jaques, ''The Situation of Poetry Now'', Philosophical Library, New York, 1955</ref> Gustave Kahn was commonly supposed to have invented the term ''vers libre'' and according to [[F. S. Flint]], he "was undoubtedly the first theorist of the technique(s)."<ref>Flint, F. S., ''Contemporary French Poetry'', The Poetry Review Aug 1912</ref> Later in 1912, Robert de Souza published his conclusion on the genre, voicing that<ref>de Souza, Robert, ''Du Rythme en Francais'', Welter, Paris 1912</ref> "A ''vers libre'' was possible which would keep all the essential characteristics of ''vers Classique'', but would free it from the encumbrances which usage had made appear indispensable."<ref name="autogenerated1986">Taupin, René, ''The Influence of French Symbolism on Modern American Poetry'' (1986),(trans William Pratt) AMS Studies in Modern Literature, {{ISBN|0-404-61579-1}}</ref> Thus, the practice of ''vers libre'' is not the abandoning of pattern, but the creation of an original and complicated metrical form for each poem.<ref>Pondrom, Cryrena The Road from Paris, French Influence on English Poetry 1900-1920 Cambridge University Press 1974 {{ISBN|978-0-521-13119-3}}</ref>


The formal stimuli for vers libre were ''vers libéré'' (French verse of the late 19th century that liberated itself from classical rules of versification whilst observing the principle of isosyllabism and regular patterned rhyme) and ''vers libre Classique'' (a minor French genre of the 17th and 18th century which conformed to classic concepts, but in which lines of different length were irregularly and unpredictably combined) and ''vers Populaire'' (versification derived from oral aspects of popular song).<ref name="autogenerated1914"/> [[Remy de Gourmont]]'s ''Livre des Masques'' gave definition to the whole vers libre movement;<ref>Read, Herbert ''The Tenth Muse'' New York 1958</ref> he notes that there should arise, at regular intervals, a full and complete line, which reassures the ear and guides the rhythm.<ref>Remy de Gourmand, ''Le Probleme du Style'', Paris 1900</ref>
The formal stimuli for ''vers libre'' were ''vers libéré'' (French verse of the late 19th century that liberated itself from classical rules of versification whilst observing the principle of isosyllabism and regular patterned rhyme) and ''vers libre Classique'' (a minor French genre of the 17th and 18th century which conformed to classic concepts, but in which lines of different length were irregularly and unpredictably combined) and ''vers Populaire'' (versification derived from oral aspects of popular song).<ref name="autogenerated1914"/> [[Remy de Gourmont]]'s ''Livre des Masques'' gave definition to the whole ''vers libre'' movement;<ref>Read, Herbert ''The Tenth Muse'' New York 1958</ref> he noted that there should arise, at regular intervals, a full and complete line, which reassures the ear and guides the rhythm.<ref>Remy de Gourmand, ''Le Probleme du Style'', Paris 1900</ref>


===Form and structure===
===Form and structure===
The unit of vers libre is not the foot, the number of the syllables, the quantity, or the line. The unit is the [[strophe]], which may be the whole poem or only a part. Each strophe is a complete circle.<ref>Lowes, John Livingston Conventions and Revolt in Poetry Houghton Mifflin, Boston 1919</ref> Vers libre is "verse-formal based upon [[Cadence (poetry)|cadence]] that allows the lines to flow as they will when read aloud by an intelligent reader."<ref>Lowell, Amy, Preface, Sword Blades, and Poppy Seed; North American Review for January 1917</ref>
The unit of ''vers libre'' is not the foot, the number of the syllables, the quantity, or the line. The unit is the [[strophe]], which may be the whole poem or only a part. Each strophe is a complete circle.<ref>Lowes, John Livingston Conventions and Revolt in Poetry Houghton Mifflin, Boston 1919</ref> ''Vers libre'' is "verse-formal based upon [[Cadence (poetry)|cadence]] that allows the lines to flow as they will when read aloud by an intelligent reader."<ref>Lowell, Amy, Preface, Sword Blades, and Poppy Seed; North American Review for January 1917</ref>


Unrhymed [[Cadence (poetry)|cadence]] in vers libre is built upon "organic rhythm" or the rhythm of the speaking voice with its necessity for breathing, rather than upon a strict metrical system.<ref>Lowes, John Livingston  ''Conventions and Revolt in Poetry'' Houghton Mifflin, Boston 1919</ref> For vers libre addresses the ear, not the eye.<ref>de Souza Robert, ''Du Rythme en Francais'', Welter, Paris 1912</ref> Vers libre is liberated from traditional rules concerning meter, caesura, and line end stopping.<ref>Kahn, Gustave, ''Le Vers libre'', Paris, 1923 ASIN: B008XZTTY2</ref> Every syllable pronounced is of nearly equal value but is less strongly accented than in English; being less intense requires less discipline to mold the accents into the poem's rhythm.<ref name="autogenerated1986"/> This new technique, as defined by Kahn, consists of the denial of a regular number of syllables as the basis for versification; the length of the line is long and short, oscillating with images used by the poet following the contours of his or her thoughts and is free rather than regular.<ref>Hulme, T. E., ''Lecture on Modern Poetry'', Kensington Town Hall 1914</ref>
Unrhymed [[Cadence (poetry)|cadence]] in ''vers libre'' is built upon "organic rhythm" or the rhythm of the speaking voice with its necessity for breathing, rather than upon a strict metrical system.<ref>Lowes, John Livingston  ''Conventions and Revolt in Poetry'' Houghton Mifflin, Boston 1919</ref> ''Vers libre'' addresses the ear, not the eye.<ref>de Souza Robert, ''Du Rythme en Francais'', Welter, Paris 1912</ref> ''Vers libre'' is liberated from traditional rules concerning meter, caesura, and line end stopping.<ref>Kahn, Gustave, ''Le Vers libre'', Paris, 1923 ASIN: B008XZTTY2</ref> Every syllable pronounced is of nearly equal value but is less strongly accented than in English; being less intense requires less discipline to mold the accents into the poem's rhythm.<ref name="autogenerated1986"/> This new technique, as defined by Kahn, consists of the denial of a regular number of syllables as the basis for versification; the length of the line is long and short, oscillating with images used by the poet following the contours of his or her thoughts and is free rather than regular.<ref>Hulme, T. E., ''Lecture on Modern Poetry'', Kensington Town Hall 1914</ref>


Although free verse requires no meter, rhyme, or other traditional poetic techniques, a poet can still use them to create some sense of structure. A clear example of this can be found in [[Walt Whitman]]'s poems, where he repeats certain phrases and uses commas to create both a rhythm and structure.
Although free verse requires no meter, rhyme, or other traditional poetic techniques, a poet can still use them to create some sense of structure.<ref name=":0" /> A clear example of this can be found in [[Walt Whitman]]'s poems, where he repeats certain phrases and uses commas to create both a rhythm and structure.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The repetition of Cunningham and Whitman {{!}} The Walt Whitman Blog / Transnational Poetry |url=https://blogs.charleston.edu/whitman/2010/11/17/the-repetition-of-cunningham-and-whitman/ |access-date=2025-12-09 |website=blogs.charleston.edu}}</ref>


Pattern and discipline are to be found in good free verse: the internal pattern of sounds, the choice of exact words, and the effect of associations give free verse its beauty.<ref>Boulton, Marjories, ''Anatomy of Poetry'', Routledge&Kegan, London 1953</ref> With the [[Imagists]] free verse became a discipline and acquired status as a legitimate poetic form.<ref>Pratt, William. The Imagist Poem, Modern Poetry in Miniature (Story Line Press, 1963, expanded 2001). {{ISBN|1-58654-009-2}}.</ref> [[Herbert Read]], however, noted that "the Imagist [[Ezra Pound]] gave free verse its musical structure to an extent that paradoxically it was no longer free."<ref>Read, Herbert Ezra Pound, ''The Tenth Muse''. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1957</ref>
Pattern and discipline are to be found in good free verse; the internal pattern of sounds, the choice of exact words, and the effect of associations give free verse its beauty.<ref>Boulton, Marjories, ''Anatomy of Poetry'', Routledge&Kegan, London 1953</ref> With the [[Imagists]], free verse became a discipline and acquired status as a legitimate poetic form.<ref>Pratt, William. The Imagist Poem, Modern Poetry in Miniature (Story Line Press, 1963, expanded 2001). {{ISBN|1-58654-009-2}}.</ref> [[Herbert Read]], however, noted that "the Imagist [[Ezra Pound]] gave free verse its musical structure to an extent that paradoxically it was no longer free."<ref>Read, Herbert Ezra Pound, ''The Tenth Muse''. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1957</ref>


Unrestrained by traditional boundaries, the poet possesses more license to express and has more control over the development of the poem. This can allow for a more spontaneous and individualized poetic art product.
Unrestrained by traditional boundaries, the poet possesses more license to express and has more control over the development of the poem;<ref name=":0" /> This can allow for a more spontaneous and individualized poetic art product.<ref name=":0" />


Technically, free verse has been described as spaced prose, a mosaic of verse and prose experience.<ref>Patterson, William Morrison, ''Rhythm of Prose'' (Preface 2nd edition) [[Columbia University Press]], 1916. [https://archive.org/stream/rhythmofproseexp00pattiala/rhythmofproseexp00pattiala_djvu.txt]</ref>
Technically, free verse has been described as spaced prose, a mosaic of verse and prose experience.<ref>Patterson, William Morrison, ''Rhythm of Prose'' (Preface 2nd edition) [[Columbia University Press]], 1916. [https://archive.org/stream/rhythmofproseexp00pattiala/rhythmofproseexp00pattiala_djvu.txt]</ref>


==Antecedents==
==Antecedents==
As the [[French-language]] term ''vers libre'' suggests, this technique of using more irregular cadences is often said to have its origin in the practices of 19th-century French poets such as [[Gustave Kahn]] and [[Jules Laforgue]], in his ''Derniers vers'' of 1890. Taupin, the US-based French poet and critic, concluded that free verse and ''vers libre'' are not synonymous, since "the French language tends to give equal [[Syllable weight|weight]] to each spoken syllable, whereas English syllables vary in quantity according to whether [[Stress (linguistics)|stressed or unstressed]]."<ref>Taupin, Rene. ''The Influence of French Symbolism on Modern American Poetry'' (1986), (translated by William Pratt), Ams Studies in Modern Literature, {{ISBN|0-404-61579-1}}</ref>
As the [[French-language]] term ''vers libre'' suggests, this technique of using more irregular cadences is often said to have its origin in the practices of 19th-century French poets such as [[Gustave Kahn]] and [[Jules Laforgue]], in his ''Derniers vers'' of 1890.<ref>{{Cite web |title=vers libre |url=https://www.britannica.com/art/vers-libre |access-date=December 9, 2025 |website=Britannica}}</ref> Taupin, the US-based French poet and critic, concluded that free verse and ''vers libre'' are not synonymous, since "the French language tends to give equal [[Syllable weight|weight]] to each spoken syllable, whereas English syllables vary in quantity according to whether [[Stress (linguistics)|stressed or unstressed]]."<ref>Taupin, Rene. ''The Influence of French Symbolism on Modern American Poetry'' (1986), (translated by William Pratt), Ams Studies in Modern Literature, {{ISBN|0-404-61579-1}}</ref>


The sort of cadencing that we now recognize in free verse can be traced back at least as far as the [[Biblical Hebrew]] [[psalmist]] poetry of the [[Bible]].<ref name="allen" /> By referring to the [[s:Psalms|Psalms]], it is possible to argue that free verse in English first appeared in the 1380s in the [[John Wycliffe]] translation of the [[Psalms]] and was repeated in different form in most [[biblical translation]]s ever since.
[[Walt Whitman]], who based his long lines in his poetry collection ''[[Leaves of Grass]]'' on the phrasing of the [[King James Bible]], influenced later American free verse composers, notably [[Allen Ginsberg]].<ref name="Kirby-Smith1998">{{cite book|author=H. T. Kirby-Smith|title=The Origins of Free Verse|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6N4IZIjmiCkC&pg=PA44|year=1998|publisher=University of Michigan Press|isbn=0-472-08565-4|page=44}}</ref> One form of free verse was employed by [[Christopher Smart]] in his long poem ''[[Jubilate Agno]]'' ([[Latin]]: ''Rejoice in the Lamb''), "written during confinement in various asylums between 1758/1763 but not published until 1939."<ref>{{Cite news |title=Jubilate Agno {{!}} poem by Smart {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Jubilate-Agno |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250815035947/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Jubilate-Agno |archive-date=15 August 2025 |access-date=2025-12-10 |work=Encyclopedia Britannica |language=en |url-status=live }}</ref>


[[Walt Whitman]], who based his long lines in his poetry collection ''[[Leaves of Grass]]'' on the phrasing of the [[King James Bible]], influenced later American free verse composers, notably [[Allen Ginsberg]].<ref name="Kirby-Smith1998">{{cite book|author=H. T. Kirby-Smith|title=The Origins of Free Verse|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6N4IZIjmiCkC&pg=PA44|year=1998|publisher=University of Michigan Press|isbn=0-472-08565-4|page=44}}</ref> One form of free verse was employed by [[Christopher Smart]] in his long poem ''[[Jubilate Agno]]'' ([[Latin]]: ''Rejoice in the Lamb''), written some time between 1759 and 1763 but not published until 1939.
Some poets of the [[Victorian era]] experimented with free verse. [[Christina Rossetti]] wrote examples of rhymed but unmetered verse, and poems such as [[W. E. Henley]]'s "Discharged" (from his ''In Hospital'' sequence) could be considered free verse.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Christina Rossetti |url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/christina-rossetti |access-date=2025-12-10 |website=The Poetry Foundation}}</ref>


Many poets of the [[Victorian era]] experimented with free verse. [[Christina Rossetti]], [[Coventry Patmore]], and [[T. E. Brown]] all wrote examples of rhymed but unmetered verse, poems such as [[W. E. Henley]]'s "Discharged" (from his ''In Hospital'' sequence).
Free verse in English was persuasively advocated by critic [[T. E. Hulme]] in his ''[[A Lecture on Modern Poetry]]'' (1908).<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-01-03 |title=A Short Analysis of T. E. Hulme’s ‘A Lecture on Modern Poetry’ |url=https://interestingliterature.com/2017/01/a-short-analysis-of-t-e-hulmes-a-lecture-on-modern-poetry/ |access-date=2025-12-10 |website=Interesting Literature |language=en-US}}</ref> Later in the preface to ''Some Imagist Poets'' 1916, he commented, "Only the name is new, you will find something much like ''vers libre'' in [[John Dryden|Dryden]]'s ''Threnodia Augustalis''; a great deal of [[John Milton|Milton]]'s ''[[Samson Agonistes]]'', and the oldest in [[Geoffrey Chaucer|Chaucer's]] ''[[The House of Fame|House of Fame]]''."<ref>Preface to ''Some Imagist Poets'', Constable, 1916</ref>


Free verse in English was persuasively advocated by critic [[T. E. Hulme]] in his ''[[A Lecture on Modern Poetry]]'' (1908). Later in the preface to ''Some Imagist Poets'' 1916, he comments, "Only the name is new, you will find something much like ''vers libre'' in [[John Dryden|Dryden]]'s ''Threnodia Augustalis''; a great deal of [[John Milton|Milton]]'s ''[[Samson Agonistes]]'', and the oldest in [[Geoffrey Chaucer|Chaucer's]] ''[[The House of Fame|House of Fame]]''."<ref>Preface to ''Some Imagist Poets'', Constable, 1916</ref>
In France, a few pieces in [[Arthur Rimbaud]]'s [[prose poem]] collection ''[[Illuminations (poems)|Illuminations]]'' contains free verse, and in the Netherlands, [[tachtiger|''tachtiger'']] (i.e. a member of the 1880s generation of innovative poets) [[Frederik van Eeden]] employed the form at least once in his poem "''Waterlelie''" ("Water Lily").<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://4umi.com/vaneeden/waterlelie.htm|title=De waterlelie < Frederik van Eeden|website=4umi.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Illuminations {{!}} Romanticism, Symbolism, Prose Poems {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Illuminations-poetry-by-Rimbaud |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250318102135/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Illuminations-poetry-by-Rimbaud |archive-date=18 March 2025 |access-date=2025-12-10 |work=Encyclopedia Britannica |language=en |url-status=live }}</ref>


In France, a few pieces in [[Arthur Rimbaud]]'s [[prose poem]] collection ''[[Illuminations (poems)|Illuminations]]'' were arranged in manuscript in lines, rather than prose, and in the Netherlands, [[tachtiger]] (i.e., a member of the 1880s generation of innovative poets) [[Frederik van Eeden]] employed the form at least once in his poem "Waterlelie" ("Water Lily").<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://4umi.com/vaneeden/waterlelie.htm|title=De waterlelie < Frederik van Eeden|website=4umi.com}}</ref>
The German poet [[Heinrich Heine]] made an important contribution to the development of free verse with 22 poems, written in two-poem cycles between 1825 and 1826, called ''Die Nordsee'' (''The North Sea'');<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wcnooASgpFIC&q=%22free+verse%22+heine+north+sea&pg=PR17 |title=Songs of Love and Grief: A Bilingual Anthology in the Verse Forms of the ...|via=Google Books |date=22 November 1995 |isbn=9780810113244 |access-date=2013-04-23|last1=Heine |first1=Heinrich |publisher=Northwestern University Press }}</ref> These were first published in ''[[Book of Songs (Heinrich Heine)|Buch der Lieder]]'' (''[[Book of Songs (Heinrich Heine)|Book of Songs]]'') in 1827.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Book of Songs by Heinrich Heine {{!}} Research Starters {{!}} EBSCO Research |url=https://www.ebsco.com/ |access-date=2025-12-10 |website=EBSCO |language=en}}</ref>


[[Goethe]] in some early poems, such as "[[Prometheus (Goethe)|Prometheus]]" and also [[Hölderlin]] used free verse occasionally, due in part to a misinterpretation of the meter used in [[Pindar]]'s poetry. Hölderlin also continued to write unmetered poems after discovering this error.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=ELuZzgnE81MC&pg=PR15 Michael Hamburger: ''Foreword''] in Robert Marcellus Browning (ed.): ''German poetry from 1750 to 1900'' (''The German Library'', vol. 39), New York: The Continuum Publishing Company, 1984, p. XV, {{ISBN|0-8264-0282-8}}</ref>
== Famous poets ==


The German poet [[Heinrich Heine]] made an important contribution to the development of free verse with 22 poems, written in two-poem cycles, called ''Die Nordsee'' (''The North Sea'') (written 1825–1826).<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wcnooASgpFIC&q=%22free+verse%22+heine+north+sea&pg=PR17 |title=Songs of Love and Grief: A Bilingual Anthology in the Verse Forms of the ...|via=Google Books |date=22 November 1995 |isbn=9780810113244 |access-date=2013-04-23|last1=Heine |first1=Heinrich |publisher=Northwestern University Press }}</ref> These were first published in ''Buch der Lieder'' (''Book of Songs'') in 1827.
* [[Audre Lorde]]<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=2023-02-25 |title=10 of the Best Free Verse Poems Everyone Should Read |url=https://interestingliterature.com/2023/02/best-free-verse-poems/ |access-date=2025-12-12 |website=Interesting Literature |language=en-US}}</ref>
** "Coal"<ref name=":1" />
* [[Langston Hughes]]<ref name=":1" />
** "[[I, Too]]"<ref name=":1" />
* [[Laura Gilpin (poet)|Laura Gilpin]]<ref name=":1" />
** "Two-Headed Calf"<ref name=":1" />
* [[Margaret Atwood]]<ref name=":1" />
** "This is a Photograph of Me" <ref name=":1" />
* [[Mary Oliver]]<ref name=":1" />
** "Wild Geese"<ref name=":1" />
* [[Stephen Crane]]<ref name=":1" />
** "[[In the Desert]]"<ref name=":1" />
* [[T. S. Eliot|T.S. Eliot]]<ref name=":1" />
** "Cousin Nancy"<ref name=":1" />
* [[Walt Whitman]]<ref name=":1" />
** "I Hear America Singing"<ref name=":1" />
* [[William Carlos Williams]]<ref name=":1" />
** "[[The Red Wheelbarrow]]"<ref name=":1" />


==See also==
==See also==

Latest revision as of 00:24, 8 April 2026

Not to be confused with Blank verse.

A free verse poem by E. E. Cummings
"Is 5" by E. E. Cummings, an example of free verse.

Free verse is an open form of poetry which does not use a prescribed or regular meter or rhyme[1] and tends to follow the rhythm of natural or irregular speech.[2] It encompasses a large range of poetic form, and its distinction to other forms (such as prose) is often ambiguous.[3][4] In general, the core characteristic of free verse is its flexibility.[5]

History

Though individual examples of English free verse poetry surfaced before the 20th century (parts of John Milton's Samson Agonistes or the majority of Walt Whitman's poetry, for example),[3] free verse is generally considered an early 20th century innovation of the late 19th-century French vers libre.[3][6] However, the sort of cadencing now recognized in free verse can be traced back at least as far as the archaic "Hebrew psalmist" poetry of the Bible.[7] The title of "American father of free verse" has been bestowed upon Walt Whitman.[8]

T. E. Hulme and F. S. Flint first introduced the form to the London-based Poets' Club in 1909.[9] This form later became the heart of the Imagist movement[10] through Flint's advocacy of the genre.[11] Imagism, in the wake of French Symbolism (i.e. vers libre of French Symbolist poets[12]), was the wellspring out of which the main current of Modernism in English flowed.[13] T. S. Eliot later identified this as "the point de repere usually taken as the starting point of modern poetry,"[14] since hundreds of poets were led to adopt vers libre as their medium.[15]

In the 21st century, most published poems are considered to be free verse.[16] Free verse is one of the more popular forms of poetry today and is considered the "norm."[16]

Definition

It is said[by whom?] that verse is free "when it is not primarily obtained by the metered line."[7] Free verse does not have "predetermined patterns that define many other poetic forms," but it is not considered to be completely free.[17] In 1948, Charles Allen wrote, "The only freedom cadenced verse obtains is a limited freedom from the tight demands of the metered line."[7] Free verse is as equally subject to elements of form (the poetic line, rhythm, strophes or strophic rhythms, stanzaic patterns, and rhythmic units or cadences) as other forms of poetry.[16] Donald Hall goes as far as to say that "the form of free verse is as binding and as liberating as the form of a rondeau,"[18] and T. S. Eliot wrote, "No verse is free for the man who wants to do a good job."[19]

Kenneth Allott, the poet and critic, said the adoption by some poets of vers libre arose from "mere desire for novelty, the imitation of Whitman, the study of Jacobean dramatic blank verse, and the awareness of what French poets had already done to the alexandrine in France."[20] The American critic John Livingston Lowes in 1916 observed "Free verse may be written as very beautiful prose; prose may be written as very beautiful free verse. Which is which?"[21]

Some poets have considered free verse restrictive in its own way. In 1922, Robert Bridges voiced his reservations in the essay "Humdrum and Harum-Scarum".[22] Robert Frost, in a comment regarding Carl Sandburg, later remarked that "Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down."[23] Sandburg responded saying, in part, "There have been poets who could and did play more than one game of tennis with unseen rackets, volleying airy and fantastic balls over an insubstantial net, on a frail moonlight fabric of a court."[24][25] William Carlos Williams said, "Being an art form, a verse cannot be free in the sense of having no limitations or guiding principles."[26] Yvor Winters, the poet and critic, said, "…the greatest fluidity of statement is possible where the greatest clarity of form prevails. … The free verse that is really verse—the best that is, of W.C. Williams, H. D., Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, and Ezra Pound—is, in its peculiar fashion, the antithesis of free."[27]

In Welsh poetry, however, the term has a completely different meaning. According to Jan Morris, "When Welsh poets speak of Free Verse, they mean forms like the sonnet or the ode, which obey the same rules as English poesy. Strict Metres verse still honors the immensely complex rules laid down for correct poetic composition 600 years ago."[28]

In general, there seems to be disagreement on whether free verse is restricted by foundational poetry conventions or not.

Vers libre

Vers libre is a free-verse poetic form of flexibility, complexity, and naturalness[29] created in France in 1886.[30] It was largely through the activities of La Vogue, a weekly journal founded by Gustave Kahn,[31] as well as the appearance of a band of poets unequaled at any one time in the history of French poetry.[32] Their style of poetry was dubbed "Counter-Romanticism" and it was led by Verlaine, Rimbaud, Mallarmé, Laforgue, and Corbière.[33] It is concerned with synesthesia (the harmony or equilibrium of sensation)[34] and later described as "the moment when French poetry began to take consciousness of itself as poetry."[35] Gustave Kahn was commonly supposed to have invented the term vers libre and according to F. S. Flint, he "was undoubtedly the first theorist of the technique(s)."[36] Later in 1912, Robert de Souza published his conclusion on the genre, voicing that[37] "A vers libre was possible which would keep all the essential characteristics of vers Classique, but would free it from the encumbrances which usage had made appear indispensable."[38] Thus, the practice of vers libre is not the abandoning of pattern, but the creation of an original and complicated metrical form for each poem.[39]

The formal stimuli for vers libre were vers libéré (French verse of the late 19th century that liberated itself from classical rules of versification whilst observing the principle of isosyllabism and regular patterned rhyme) and vers libre Classique (a minor French genre of the 17th and 18th century which conformed to classic concepts, but in which lines of different length were irregularly and unpredictably combined) and vers Populaire (versification derived from oral aspects of popular song).[31] Remy de Gourmont's Livre des Masques gave definition to the whole vers libre movement;[40] he noted that there should arise, at regular intervals, a full and complete line, which reassures the ear and guides the rhythm.[41]

Form and structure

The unit of vers libre is not the foot, the number of the syllables, the quantity, or the line. The unit is the strophe, which may be the whole poem or only a part. Each strophe is a complete circle.[42] Vers libre is "verse-formal based upon cadence that allows the lines to flow as they will when read aloud by an intelligent reader."[43]

Unrhymed cadence in vers libre is built upon "organic rhythm" or the rhythm of the speaking voice with its necessity for breathing, rather than upon a strict metrical system.[44] Vers libre addresses the ear, not the eye.[45] Vers libre is liberated from traditional rules concerning meter, caesura, and line end stopping.[46] Every syllable pronounced is of nearly equal value but is less strongly accented than in English; being less intense requires less discipline to mold the accents into the poem's rhythm.[38] This new technique, as defined by Kahn, consists of the denial of a regular number of syllables as the basis for versification; the length of the line is long and short, oscillating with images used by the poet following the contours of his or her thoughts and is free rather than regular.[47]

Although free verse requires no meter, rhyme, or other traditional poetic techniques, a poet can still use them to create some sense of structure.[16] A clear example of this can be found in Walt Whitman's poems, where he repeats certain phrases and uses commas to create both a rhythm and structure.[48]

Pattern and discipline are to be found in good free verse; the internal pattern of sounds, the choice of exact words, and the effect of associations give free verse its beauty.[49] With the Imagists, free verse became a discipline and acquired status as a legitimate poetic form.[50] Herbert Read, however, noted that "the Imagist Ezra Pound gave free verse its musical structure to an extent that paradoxically it was no longer free."[51]

Unrestrained by traditional boundaries, the poet possesses more license to express and has more control over the development of the poem;[16] This can allow for a more spontaneous and individualized poetic art product.[16]

Technically, free verse has been described as spaced prose, a mosaic of verse and prose experience.[52]

Antecedents

As the French-language term vers libre suggests, this technique of using more irregular cadences is often said to have its origin in the practices of 19th-century French poets such as Gustave Kahn and Jules Laforgue, in his Derniers vers of 1890.[53] Taupin, the US-based French poet and critic, concluded that free verse and vers libre are not synonymous, since "the French language tends to give equal weight to each spoken syllable, whereas English syllables vary in quantity according to whether stressed or unstressed."[54]

Walt Whitman, who based his long lines in his poetry collection Leaves of Grass on the phrasing of the King James Bible, influenced later American free verse composers, notably Allen Ginsberg.[55] One form of free verse was employed by Christopher Smart in his long poem Jubilate Agno (Latin: Rejoice in the Lamb), "written during confinement in various asylums between 1758/1763 but not published until 1939."[56]

Some poets of the Victorian era experimented with free verse. Christina Rossetti wrote examples of rhymed but unmetered verse, and poems such as W. E. Henley's "Discharged" (from his In Hospital sequence) could be considered free verse.[57]

Free verse in English was persuasively advocated by critic T. E. Hulme in his A Lecture on Modern Poetry (1908).[58] Later in the preface to Some Imagist Poets 1916, he commented, "Only the name is new, you will find something much like vers libre in Dryden's Threnodia Augustalis; a great deal of Milton's Samson Agonistes, and the oldest in Chaucer's House of Fame."[59]

In France, a few pieces in Arthur Rimbaud's prose poem collection Illuminations contains free verse, and in the Netherlands, tachtiger (i.e. a member of the 1880s generation of innovative poets) Frederik van Eeden employed the form at least once in his poem "Waterlelie" ("Water Lily").[60][61]

The German poet Heinrich Heine made an important contribution to the development of free verse with 22 poems, written in two-poem cycles between 1825 and 1826, called Die Nordsee (The North Sea);[62] These were first published in Buch der Lieder (Book of Songs) in 1827.[63]

Famous poets

See also

References

  1. ↑ Abbs, Peter; Richardson, John (15 November 1990). The Forms of Poetry: A practical study guide for English (15th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 137. ISBN 978-0-521-37160-5.
  2. ↑ "Free verse". The Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 9 December 2025.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 DeFord, Sara; Harriss, Clarinda (1971). Forms of verse: British and American. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts. pp. 292–293. ISBN 0390260002.
  4. ↑ Kirby-Smith, H. T. (1996). The origins of free verse. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. p. 43. ISBN 0472106988.
  5. ↑ "Free Verse Explained: What It Is & How to Write It - Literary Devices". 8 November 2025. Retrieved 9 December 2025.
  6. ↑ Kirby-Smith, Henry Tompkins (1996). The origins of free verse. Ann Arbor (Mich.): the University of Michigan press. p. 10. ISBN 0472106988.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Allen, Charles (1948). "Cadenced Free Verse". College English. 9 (4): 195–199. doi:10.2307/371561. JSTOR 371561.
  8. ↑ "Walt Whitman 101". The Poetry Foundation. 17 May 2019. Retrieved 9 December 2025.
  9. ↑ Pondrom, Cryrena The Road from Paris, French Influence on English Poetry 1900-1920 Cambridge University Press 1974 ISBN 978-0-521-13119-3
  10. ↑ F. S. Flint, The History of Imagism Essay in The Egoist May 1915
  11. ↑ Jones Peter (editor) Introduction to Imagist Poetry Penguin Books ISBN 0-14-042147-5
  12. ↑ Pratt William Introduction to The Imagist Poem, modern poetry in miniature Uno Press 1963 edition ISBN 978-0-9728143-8-6
  13. ↑ Pratt William Preface to The Imagist Poem, modern poetry in miniature Uno Press 1963 edition ISBN 978-0-9728143-8-6
  14. ↑ Eliot T. S. Address To Criticize the Critic to Washington University June 1953, Faber & Faber 1965
  15. ↑ Untermeyer, Louis, Preface to Modern American Poetry Harcourt Brace& Co New York 1950
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 16.5 "LitCharts". LitCharts. Retrieved 9 December 2025.
  17. ↑ "Free Verse - Definition and Examples of Free Verse". 15 February 2014. Retrieved 9 December 2025.
  18. ↑ Donald Hall, in the essay 'Goatfoot, Milktongue, Twinbird' in the book of 0-472-40000-2.
  19. ↑ Eliot quote from the essay, "The Music of Poetry" Jackson (1 January 1942) ASIN B0032Q49RO
  20. ↑ Introductory Note by Kenneth Allott (ed.) The Penguin Book of Contemporary Verse, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, England 1950
  21. ↑ Lowes, Livingston John, Nation Feb 1916
  22. ↑ Bridges, Robert (1928). Collected Essays Papers Etc of Robert Bridges 2 and 3 " Humdrum & Harum-Scarum, A Lecture on Free Verse" and " Poetic Diction". Internet Archive.
  23. ↑ "Free Verse Vs Structure: Robert Frost's Insight". 13 December 2024. Retrieved 9 December 2025.
  24. ↑ The Robert Frost Encyclopedia. Nancy Lewis Tuten, John Zubizarreta. Greenwood Press (2001). Page 318. ISBN 9780313294648
  25. ↑ Lingeman, Richard. "A Poet for the People: Carl Sandburg: A Biography". Los Angeles Times. 14 July 1991.
  26. ↑ Free Verse, Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, 2nd Ed, 1975
  27. ↑ [1] Winters, Yvor. Primitivism and Decadence: A Study of American Experimental Poetry. Arrow Editions, New York, 1937. p. 7
  28. ↑ Jan Morris (1984), The Matter of Wales: Epic Views of a Small Country, Oxford University Press. Page 152.
  29. ↑ Hover, Richard Poet in Town Interview with Boston Record Sept 1898
  30. ↑ Jones, P. Mansell (1947). "The First Theory of the "Vers Libre"". The Modern Language Review. 42 (2): 207–214. doi:10.2307/3717225. ISSN 0026-7937.
  31. ↑ 31.0 31.1 Scott, Clive, Vers libre: the emergence of free verse in France, 1886-1914 Clarendon Press, Oxford ISBN 978-0-19-815159-3
  32. ↑ Hulme, T. E. Lecture on Modern Poetry, Kensington Town Hall 1914
  33. ↑ Pratt, William, Introduction to The Influence of French Symbolism on Modern American Poetry by René Taupin, AMS Press Inc, New York 1985 ISBN 0-404-61579-1
  34. ↑ I A Richards & C.K.Ogden The Foundations of Aesthetics, Lear Publisher, New York 1925
  35. ↑ Maritain Jaques, The Situation of Poetry Now, Philosophical Library, New York, 1955
  36. ↑ Flint, F. S., Contemporary French Poetry, The Poetry Review Aug 1912
  37. ↑ de Souza, Robert, Du Rythme en Francais, Welter, Paris 1912
  38. ↑ 38.0 38.1 Taupin, René, The Influence of French Symbolism on Modern American Poetry (1986),(trans William Pratt) AMS Studies in Modern Literature, ISBN 0-404-61579-1
  39. ↑ Pondrom, Cryrena The Road from Paris, French Influence on English Poetry 1900-1920 Cambridge University Press 1974 ISBN 978-0-521-13119-3
  40. ↑ Read, Herbert The Tenth Muse New York 1958
  41. ↑ Remy de Gourmand, Le Probleme du Style, Paris 1900
  42. ↑ Lowes, John Livingston Conventions and Revolt in Poetry Houghton Mifflin, Boston 1919
  43. ↑ Lowell, Amy, Preface, Sword Blades, and Poppy Seed; North American Review for January 1917
  44. ↑ Lowes, John Livingston Conventions and Revolt in Poetry Houghton Mifflin, Boston 1919
  45. ↑ de Souza Robert, Du Rythme en Francais, Welter, Paris 1912
  46. ↑ Kahn, Gustave, Le Vers libre, Paris, 1923 ASIN: B008XZTTY2
  47. ↑ Hulme, T. E., Lecture on Modern Poetry, Kensington Town Hall 1914
  48. ↑ "The repetition of Cunningham and Whitman | The Walt Whitman Blog / Transnational Poetry". blogs.charleston.edu. Retrieved 9 December 2025.
  49. ↑ Boulton, Marjories, Anatomy of Poetry, Routledge&Kegan, London 1953
  50. ↑ Pratt, William. The Imagist Poem, Modern Poetry in Miniature (Story Line Press, 1963, expanded 2001). ISBN 1-58654-009-2.
  51. ↑ Read, Herbert Ezra Pound, The Tenth Muse. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1957
  52. ↑ Patterson, William Morrison, Rhythm of Prose (Preface 2nd edition) Columbia University Press, 1916. [2]
  53. ↑ "vers libre". Britannica. Retrieved 9 December 2025.
  54. ↑ Taupin, Rene. The Influence of French Symbolism on Modern American Poetry (1986), (translated by William Pratt), Ams Studies in Modern Literature, ISBN 0-404-61579-1
  55. ↑ H. T. Kirby-Smith (1998). The Origins of Free Verse. University of Michigan Press. p. 44. ISBN 0-472-08565-4.
  56. ↑ "Jubilate Agno | poem by Smart | Britannica". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on 15 August 2025. Retrieved 10 December 2025.
  57. ↑ "Christina Rossetti". The Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 10 December 2025.
  58. ↑ "A Short Analysis of T. E. Hulme's 'A Lecture on Modern Poetry'". Interesting Literature. 3 January 2017. Retrieved 10 December 2025.
  59. ↑ Preface to Some Imagist Poets, Constable, 1916
  60. ↑ "De waterlelie < Frederik van Eeden". 4umi.com.
  61. ↑ "Illuminations | Romanticism, Symbolism, Prose Poems | Britannica". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on 18 March 2025. Retrieved 10 December 2025.
  62. ↑ Heine, Heinrich (22 November 1995). Songs of Love and Grief: A Bilingual Anthology in the Verse Forms of the ... Northwestern University Press. ISBN 9780810113244. Retrieved 23 April 2013 – via Google Books.
  63. ↑ "Book of Songs by Heinrich Heine | Research Starters | EBSCO Research". EBSCO. Retrieved 10 December 2025.
  64. ↑ 64.00 64.01 64.02 64.03 64.04 64.05 64.06 64.07 64.08 64.09 64.10 64.11 64.12 64.13 64.14 64.15 64.16 64.17 "10 of the Best Free Verse Poems Everyone Should Read". Interesting Literature. 25 February 2023. Retrieved 12 December 2025.

Further reading

On vers libre

  • Taupin, René The Influence of French Symbolism on Modern American Poetry (1986), (trans William Pratt) Ams Studies in Modern Literature, ISBN 0-404-61579-1
  • Pondrom, Cryrena The Road from Paris, French Influence on English Poetry 1900-1920, Cambridge University Press 1974 ISBN 978-0-521-13119-3
  • Scott, Clive, Vers libre : the emergence of free verse in France, 1886-1914 Clarendon Press, Oxford ISBN 978-0-19-815159-3
  • Kahn, Gustave, Le Vers libre, Paris, 1923 ASIN: B008XZTTY2
  • Pound, Ezra, The Approach to Paris, The New Age Sep 1913
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