Free verse is an open form of

poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

which does not use a prescribed or regular

meter The metre (or meter in US spelling; symbol: m) is the base unit of length in the International System of Units (SI). Since 2019, the metre has been defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of of ...

rhyme A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually the exact same phonemes) in the final Stress (linguistics), stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of rhyming (''perfect rhyming'') is consciou ...

and tends to follow the rhythm of 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.

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), free verse is generally considered an early 20th century innovation of the late 19th-century French ''vers libre''. T. E. Hulme and F. S. Flint first introduced the form to the London-based Poets' Club in 1909. This later became the heart of the

Imagist Imagism was a movement in early-20th-century poetry that favored precision of imagery and clear, sharp language. It is considered to be the first organized literary modernism, modernist literary movement in the English language. Imagism has bee ...

movement through Flint's advocacy of the genre. Imagism, in the wake of French Symbolism (i.e. vers libre of French Symbolist poets) was the wellspring out of which the main current of

Modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

in English flowed. T. S. Eliot later identified this as "the point de repere usually taken as the starting point of modern poetry," as hundreds of poets were led to adopt vers libre as their medium.

Definition

It is said that verse is free "when it is not primarily obtained by the metered line." 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." 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," and T. S. Eliot wrote, "No verse is free for the man who wants to do a good job." 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 Blank verse is poetry written with regular metre (poetry), metrical but rhyme, unrhymed lines, usually in iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the 16th cen ...

, and the awareness of what French poets had already done to the alexandrine in France." The American critic John Livingston Lowes in 1916 observed "Free verse may be written as very beautiful

prose Prose is language that follows the natural flow or rhythm of speech, ordinary grammatical structures, or, in writing, typical conventions and formatting. Thus, prose ranges from informal speaking to formal academic writing. Prose differs most n ...

; prose may be written as very beautiful free verse. Which is which?" 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." William Carlos Williams said, "Being an art form, a verse cannot be free in the sense of having no limitations or guiding principles." 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 Marianne Craig Moore (November 15, 1887 – February 5, 1972) was an American Modernism, modernist poet, critic, translator, and editor. Her poetry is noted for its formal innovation, precise diction, irony, and wit. In 1968 Nobel Prize in Li ...

, Wallace Stevens, and

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...

—is, in its peculiar fashion, the

antithesis Antithesis (: antitheses; Greek for "setting opposite", from "against" and "placing") is used in writing or speech either as a proposition that contrasts with or reverses some previously mentioned proposition, or when two opposites are introd ...

of free." 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 A sonnet is a fixed poetic form with a structure traditionally consisting of fourteen lines adhering to a set Rhyme scheme, rhyming scheme. The term derives from the Italian word ''sonetto'' (, from the Latin word ''sonus'', ). Originating in ...

or the ode, which obey the same rules as English poesy. Strict Metres verse still honours the immensely complex rules laid down for correct poetic composition 600 years ago."

Vers libre

Vers libre is a free-verse poetic form of flexibility, complexity, and naturalness 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,Scott, Clive, Vers libre: the emergence of free verse in France, 1886-1914 Clarendon Press, Oxford as well as the appearance of a band of poets unequaled at any one time in the history of French poetry. Their style of poetry was dubbed "Counter-Romanticism" and it was led by Verlaine, Rimbaud, Mallarmé, Laforgue and Corbière. It was concerned with synaethesis (the harmony or equilibrium of sensation) and later described as "the moment when French poetry began to take consciousness of itself as poetry." 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)." Later in 1912, Robert de Souza published his conclusion on the genre, voicing that "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."Taupin, René, ''The Influence of French Symbolism on Modern American Poetry'' (1986),(trans William Pratt) AMS Studies in Modern Literature, 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. 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).

Remy de Gourmont Remy de Gourmont (4 April 1858 – 27 September 1915) was a French symbolist poet, novelist, and influential critic. He was widely read in his era, and an important influence on Blaise Cendrars and Georges Bataille. The spelling ''Rémy'' de Go ...

's ''Livre des Masques'' gave definition to the whole vers libre movement; he notes that there should arise, at regular intervals, a full and complete line, which reassures the ear and guides the rhythm.

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 A strophe () is a poetic term originally referring to the first part of the ode in Ancient Greek tragedy, followed by the antistrophe and epode. The term has been extended to also mean a structural division of a poem containing stanzas of var ...

, which may be the whole poem or only a part. Each strophe is a complete circle. Vers libre is "verse-formal based upon cadence that allows the lines to flow as they will when read aloud by an intelligent reader." 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. For vers libre addresses the ear, not the eye. Vers libre is liberated from traditional rules concerning meter, caesura, and line end stopping. 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. 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. 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. 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. With the

Imagists Imagism was a movement in early-20th-century poetry that favored precision of imagery and clear, sharp language. It is considered to be the first organized literary modernism, modernist literary movement in the English language. Imagism has bee ...

free verse became a discipline and acquired status as a legitimate poetic form.

Herbert Read Sir Herbert Edward Read, (; 4 December 1893 – 12 June 1968) was an English art historian, poet, literary critic and philosopher, best known for numerous books on art, which included influential volumes on the role of art in education. Read wa ...

, however, noted that "the Imagist

gave free verse its musical structure to an extent that paradoxically it was no longer free." 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. Technically, free verse has been described as spaced prose, a mosaic of verse and prose experience.

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

weight In science and engineering, the weight of an object is a quantity associated with the gravitational force exerted on the object by other objects in its environment, although there is some variation and debate as to the exact definition. Some sta ...

to each spoken syllable, whereas English syllables vary in quantity according to whether stressed or unstressed." The sort of cadencing that we now recognize in free verse can be traced back at least as far as the

Biblical Hebrew Biblical Hebrew ( or ), also called Classical Hebrew, is an archaic form of the Hebrew language, a language in the Canaanite languages, Canaanitic branch of the Semitic languages spoken by the Israelites in the area known as the Land of Isra ...

psalmist poetry of the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

. By referring to the

Psalms The Book of Psalms ( , ; ; ; ; , in Islam also called Zabur, ), also known as the Psalter, is the first book of the third section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) called ('Writings'), and a book of the Old Testament. The book is an anthology of B ...

, it is possible to argue that free verse in English first appeared in the 1380s in the

John Wycliffe John Wycliffe (; also spelled Wyclif, Wickliffe, and other variants; 1328 – 31 December 1384) was an English scholastic philosopher, Christianity, Christian reformer, Catholic priest, and a theology professor at the University of Oxfor ...

translation of the

and was repeated in different form in most biblical translations ever since. Walt Whitman, who based his long lines in his poetry collection '' Leaves of Grass'' on the phrasing of the

King James Bible The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version (AV), is an Early Modern English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611, by ...

, influenced later American free verse composers, notably Allen Ginsberg. One form of free verse was employed by Christopher Smart in his long poem '' Jubilate Agno'' (

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

: ''Rejoice in the Lamb''), written some time between 1759 and 1763 but not published until 1939. Many poets of the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Slightly different definitions are sometimes used. The era followed the ...

experimented with free verse.

Christina Rossetti Christina Georgina Rossetti (5 December 1830 – 29 December 1894) was an English writer of romanticism, romantic, devotional and children's poems, including "Goblin Market" and "Remember". She also wrote the words of two Christmas carols well k ...

, 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). 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 Dryden's ''Threnodia Augustalis''; a great deal of Milton's '' Samson Agonistes'', and the oldest in Chaucer's '' House of Fame''." In France, a few pieces in Arthur Rimbaud's prose poem collection '' 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").

Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...

in some early poems, such as "

Prometheus In Greek mythology, Prometheus (; , , possibly meaning "forethought")Smith"Prometheus". is a Titans, Titan. He is best known for defying the Olympian gods by taking theft of fire, fire from them and giving it to humanity in the form of technol ...

" and also Hölderlin used free verse occasionally, due in part to a misinterpretation of the meter used in

Pindar Pindar (; ; ; ) was an Greek lyric, Ancient Greek lyric poet from Thebes, Greece, Thebes. Of the Western canon, canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, his work is the best preserved. Quintilian wrote, "Of the nine lyric poets, Pindar i ...

's poetry. Hölderlin also continued to write unmetered poems after discovering this error. The German poet

Heinrich Heine Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (; ; born Harry Heine; 13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856) was an outstanding poet, writer, and literary criticism, literary critic of 19th-century German Romanticism. He is best known outside Germany for his ...

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). These were first published in ''Buch der Lieder'' (''Book of Songs'') in 1827.

References

External links

Free verse read aloud by William Carlos WilliamsMarianne Moore reads aloud an example of her free verseWallace Stevens reads aloud one of his free verse poems
* ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCzbdORy-MM ''Correspondances'' by Charles Baudelaire an example of vers libre {{DEFAULTSORT:Free Verse Types of verses Poetic forms