Prose is a form of written or spoken
language that follows the
natural flow of speech, uses a language's ordinary
grammatical structures, or follows the conventions of formal
academic writing
Academic writing or scholarly writing is nonfiction produced as part of academic work, including reports on empirical fieldwork or research in facilities for the natural sciences or social sciences, monographs in which scholars analyze culture, ...
. It differs from most traditional
poetry, where the form consists of
verse
Verse may refer to:
Poetry
* Verse, an occasional synonym for poetry
* Verse, a metrical structure, a stanza
* Blank verse, a type of poetry having regular meter but no rhyme
* Free verse, a type of poetry written without the use of strict me ...
(writing in
lines) based on
rhythmic metre or
rhyme
A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually, the exact same phonemes) in the final stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of perfect rhyming is consciously used for a musical or aesthetic ...
. The word "prose" first appears in
English in the 14th century. It is derived from the
Old French ''prose'', which in turn originates in the
Latin expression ''prosa oratio'' (literally, straightforward or direct speech).
Works of
philosophy,
history,
economics, etc., journalism, and most
fiction (an exception is the
verse novel), are examples of works written in prose. Developments in twentieth century literature, including
free verse,
concrete poetry
Concrete poetry is an arrangement of linguistic elements in which the typographical effect is more important in conveying meaning than verbal significance. It is sometimes referred to as visual poetry, a term that has now developed a distinct me ...
, and
prose poetry, have led to the idea of poetry and prose as two ends on a spectrum rather than firmly distinct from each other. The British poet
T. S. Eliot noted, whereas "the distinction between
verse
Verse may refer to:
Poetry
* Verse, an occasional synonym for poetry
* Verse, a metrical structure, a stanza
* Blank verse, a type of poetry having regular meter but no rhyme
* Free verse, a type of poetry written without the use of strict me ...
and prose is clear, the distinction between
poetry and prose is obscure."
History
Latin was a major influence on the development of prose in many
European countries
The list below includes all entities falling even partially under any of the various common definitions of Europe, geographical or political. Fifty generally recognised sovereign states, Kosovo with limited, but substantial, international rec ...
. Especially important was the great Roman orator
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...
(106 – 43 BC). It was the ''lingua franca'' among literate Europeans until quite recent times, and the great works of
Descartes (1596 – 1650),
Francis Bacon (1561 – 1626), and
Baruch Spinoza
Baruch (de) Spinoza (born Bento de Espinosa; later as an author and a correspondent ''Benedictus de Spinoza'', anglicized to ''Benedict de Spinoza''; 24 November 1632 – 21 February 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, b ...
(1632 – 1677) were published in Latin. Among the last important books written primarily in Latin prose were the works of
Swedenborg
Emanuel Swedenborg (, ; born Emanuel Swedberg; 29 March 1772) was a Swedish pluralistic-Christian theologian, scientist, philosopher and mystic. He became best known for his book on the afterlife, ''Heaven and Hell'' (1758).
Swedenborg had a ...
(d. 1772),
Linnaeus (d. 1778),
Euler (d. 1783),
Gauss
Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss (; german: Gauß ; la, Carolus Fridericus Gauss; 30 April 177723 February 1855) was a German mathematician and physicist who made significant contributions to many fields in mathematics and science. Sometimes refer ...
(d. 1855), and
Isaac Newton (d. 1727).
Qualities
Prose usually lacks the more formal metrical structure of the
verse
Verse may refer to:
Poetry
* Verse, an occasional synonym for poetry
* Verse, a metrical structure, a stanza
* Blank verse, a type of poetry having regular meter but no rhyme
* Free verse, a type of poetry written without the use of strict me ...
s found in traditional
poetry. It comprises full grammatical sentences (other than in
stream of consciousness narrative), and paragraphs, whereas poetry often involves a
metrical or
rhyming scheme. Some works of prose make use of rhythm and verbal music. Verse is normally more systematic or formulaic, while prose is closer to both ordinary, and conversational speech.
In
Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (, ; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, , ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and world ...
's play ''
Le Bourgeois gentilhomme'' the character Monsieur Jourdain asked for something to be written in neither verse nor prose, to which a philosophy master replies: "there is no other way to express oneself than with prose or verse", for the simple reason that "everything that is not prose is verse, and everything that is not verse is prose".
American novelist
Truman Capote
Truman Garcia Capote ( ; born Truman Streckfus Persons; September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) was an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright and actor. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics, ...
, in an interview, commented as follows on prose style:
Types
Many types of prose exist, which include those used in works of
nonfiction,
prose poem,
alliterative prose
Alliteration is the conspicuous repetition of initial consonant sounds of nearby words in a phrase, often used as a literary device. A familiar example is "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers". Alliteration is used poetically in various ...
and
prose fiction.
* A prose poem – is a composition in prose that has some of the qualities of a poem.
*
Haikai prose
is a prosimetric literary form originating in Japan, combining prose and haiku. The range of ''haibun'' is broad and frequently includes autobiography, diary, essay, prose poem, short story and travel journal.
History
The term "''haibun''" was ...
– combines
haiku
is a type of short form poetry originally from Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases that contain a ''kireji'', or "cutting word", 17 '' on'' (phonetic units similar to syllables) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern, and a '' kigo'', or s ...
and prose.
*
Prosimetrum – is a poetic composition which exploits a combination of prose and
verse
Verse may refer to:
Poetry
* Verse, an occasional synonym for poetry
* Verse, a metrical structure, a stanza
* Blank verse, a type of poetry having regular meter but no rhyme
* Free verse, a type of poetry written without the use of strict me ...
(''metrum'');
[Braund, Susanna.]
Prosimetrum
. In Cancil, Hubert, and Helmuth Schneider, eds. ''Brill's New Pauly''. Brill Online, 2012. Retrieved 2 October 2015. in particular, it is a text composed in alternating segments of prose and verse.
[Brogan, T.V.F. "Prosimetrum". In Green et al., pp. 1115–1116.] It is widely found in Western and Eastern literature.
*
Purple prose – is prose that is so extravagant, ornate, or flowery as to break the flow and draw excessive attention to itself.
Divisions of prose
Prose is divided into two main divisions:
*Fiction
*Non fiction
References
Further reading
*
* Patterson, William Morrison
''Rhythm of Prose'' Columbia University Press, 1917.
* 244 pages.
* 216 pages.
External links
Prose examples in Literature
{{Authority control