Free verse is an open form of

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings ...

, which in its modern form arose through the French '' vers libre'' form. It does not use consistent

meter The metre ( British spelling) or meter ( American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its pr ...

patterns,

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 ...

, or any musical pattern. It thus tends to follow the rhythm of

natural speech In neuropsychology, linguistics, and philosophy of language, a natural language or ordinary language is any language that has evolved naturally in humans through use and repetition without conscious planning or premeditation. Natural languages ...

Definition

Free verse does not "proceed by a strict set of rules … is not a literary type, and does not conform to a formal structure." 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 contains some elements of form, including the poetic line, which may vary freely; rhythm; strophes or strophic rhythms; stanzaic patterns and rhythmic units or cadences. It is said that verse is free "when it is not primarily obtained by the metered line."

Donald Hall Donald Andrew Hall Jr. (September 20, 1928 – June 23, 2018) was an American poet, writer, editor and literary critic. He was the author of over 50 books across several genres from children's literature, biography, memoir, essays, and includin ...

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 Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biogr ...

wrote, "No verse is free for the man who wants to do a good job."

Kenneth Allott Kenneth Cyril Bruce Allott (29 August 1912 – 23 May 1973) was an Anglo-Irish poet and academic, and authority on Matthew Arnold. Life Allott was the elder son of Hubert Cyril Willoughby Allott and his wife Rose (née Finlay).Ian Sansom, ‘Al ...

, 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 metrical but unrhymed lines, almost always in iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the 16th century", and ...

, and the awareness of what French poets had already done to the

alexandrine Alexandrine is a name used for several distinct types of verse line with related metrical structures, most of which are ultimately derived from the classical French alexandrine. The line's name derives from its use in the Medieval French ''Roma ...

in France." The American critic John Livingston Lowes in 1916 observed "Free verse may be written as very beautiful

prose 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. It differs from most traditional poetry, where the f ...

; 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 Robert Lee Frost (March26, 1874January29, 1963) was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in the United States. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American collo ...

, in a comment regarding

Carl Sandburg Carl August Sandburg (January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967) was an American poet, biographer, journalist, and editor. He won three Pulitzer Prizes: two for his poetry and one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. During his lifetime, 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 William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet, writer, and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism. In addition to his writing, Williams had a long career as a physician practicing both ped ...

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 William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet, writer, and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism. In addition to his writing, Williams had a long career as a physician practicing both ped ...

, H. D.,

Marianne Moore Marianne Craig Moore (November 15, 1887 – February 5, 1972) was an American modernist poet, critic, translator, and editor. Her poetry is noted for formal innovation, precise diction, irony, and wit. Early life Moore was born in Kirkwood, ...

Wallace Stevens Wallace Stevens (October 2, 1879 – August 2, 1955) was an American modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as an executive for an insurance comp ...

, and

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works includ ...

—is, in its peculiar fashion, the

antithesis Antithesis (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 introduced together f ...

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 poetic form that originated in the poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's inventio ...

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 Mallarmé is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * André Mallarmé (1877–1956), French politician * Stéphane Mallarmé Stéphane Mallarmé ( , ; 18 March 1842 – 9 September 1898), pen name of Étienne Mallarmé, was a Fre ...

, 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 Frank Stuart Flint (19 December 1885 – 28 February 1960) was an English poet and translator who was a prominent member of the Imagist group. Ford Madox Ford called him "one of the greatest men and one of the beautiful spirits of the country". ...

, 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'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 vary ...

, which may be the whole poem or only a part. Each strophe is a complete circle. Vers libre is "verse-formal based upon

cadence In Western musical theory, a cadence (Latin ''cadentia'', "a falling") is the end of a phrase in which the melody or harmony creates a sense of full or partial resolution, especially in music of the 16th century onwards. Don Michael Randel ( ...

that allows the lines to flow as they will when read aloud by an intelligent reader." Unrhymed

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 verification; 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 Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among ...

'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 free verse became a discipline and acquired status as a legitimate poetic form. Herbert Read, 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.

Legacy

Vers libre, until 1912, had hardly been heard of outside France until T. E. Hulme and

shared their knowledge in 1909 with the Poets Club in London. This later became the heart of the Imagist movement through Flint's advocacy of the genre. Thus, vers libre influenced

Imagism Imagism was a movement in early-20th-century Anglo-American 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. ...

in the discovery of new forms and rhythms. 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 is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, ...

in English flowed.

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.

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 the force acting on the object due to gravity. Some standard textbooks define weight as a vector quantity, the gravitational force acting on the object. Others define weight as a scalar q ...

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

psalmist The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived f ...

poetry of the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts o ...

. By referring to the

Psalms The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived f ...

, 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, theologian, biblical translator, reformer, Catholic priest, and a seminary professor at the University o ...

translation of the

and was repeated in different form in most biblical translations ever since.

, 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, is an English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611, by sponsorship of K ...

, influenced later American free verse composers, notably

Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Genera ...

. 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 branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

: ''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 period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edward ...

experimented with free verse.

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

, Coventry Patmore, and

T. E. Brown Thomas Edward Brown (5 May 183029 October 1897), commonly referred to as T. E. Brown, was a late-Victorian scholar, schoolmaster, poet, and theologian from the Isle of Man. Having achieved a double first at Christ Church, Oxford, and electio ...

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 '' John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the pe ...

'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 Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud (, ; 20 October 1854 – 10 November 1891) was a French poet known for his transgressive and surreal themes and for his influence on modern literature and arts, prefiguring surrealism. Born in Charleville, he sta ...

prose poem Prose poetry is poetry written in prose form instead of verse form, while preserving poetic qualities such as heightened imagery, parataxis, and emotional effects. Characteristics Prose poetry is written as prose, without the line breaks associ ...

collection '' Illuminations'' were arranged in manuscript in lines, rather than prose, and in the Netherlands,

tachtiger The Tachtigers ("Eightiers"), otherwise known as the Movement of Eighty ( nl, Beweging van Tachtig), were a radical and influential group of Dutch writers who developed a new approach in 19th-century Dutch literature. They interacted and worked ...

(i.e., a member of the 1880s generation of innovative poets)

Frederik van Eeden Frederik Willem van Eeden (3 April 1860, Haarlem – 16 June 1932, Bussum) was a late 19th-century and early 20th-century Dutch writer and psychiatrist. He was a leading member of the Tachtigers and the Significs Group, and had top billing a ...

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 poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as t ...

in some early poems, such as "

Prometheus In Greek mythology, Prometheus (; , , possibly meaning "forethought")Smith"Prometheus". is a Titan god of fire. Prometheus is best known for defying the gods by stealing fire from them and giving it to humanity in the form of technology, know ...

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

Pindar Pindar (; grc-gre, Πίνδαρος , ; la, Pindarus; ) was an Ancient Greek lyric poet from Thebes. Of the 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 a German poet, writer and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of '' Lie ...

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''Correspondances'' by Charles Baudelaire
an example of vers libre {{DEFAULTSORT:Free Verse Types of verses Poetic forms