Free verse (also at times referred to as a free verse) is a term describing various styles of poetry that are not written using strict meter or rhyme, but that still are recognizable as poetry by virtue of complex patterns of one sort or another that readers will perceive to be part of a coherent whole.^[1] Freeverse Software is a computer game software developer, specializing in Mac games. ... This article is about the art form. ... In literature, meter or metre (sometimes known as prosody) is a term used in the scansion (analysis into metrical patterns) of poetry, usually indicated by the kind of feet and the number of them. ... A rhyme is a repetition of identical or similar sounds in two or more different words and is most often used in poetry. ...

Some types of Free Verse

Philip Hobsbaum identifies three major types of free verse: Philip Hobsbaum (born 29 June 1932) is an academic, poet and critic. ...

1. free iambic verse which is an extension of the work of the Jacobean dramatists. Practitioners of this sort of free verse include: T. S. Eliot, Hart Crane, and W. H. Auden.
2. cadenced verse in the manner of Walt Whitman
3. free verse proper, where the discrepancies and variations of meter are centre stage

Cadenced verse is today based on rhythmical phrases that are more irregular than those of traditional poetic meter. When it is used, it tends to follow a looser pattern than would be expected in formal verse. Free verse does away with the structuring devices of regular meter and rhyme schemes; other traditional elements of expression, such as diction and syntax may still be prominent. This article is in need of attention. ... Thomas Stearns Eliot, OM (September 26, 1888 – January 4, 1965), was a poet, dramatist and literary critic. ... Harold Hart Crane (July 21, 1899 – April 27, 1932) was an American poet. ... Wystan Hugh Auden (21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) IPA: ;[1], who signed his works W. H. Auden, was an Anglo-American poet, regarded by many as one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. ... Walter Whitman (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, journalist, and humanist. ...

History

An early usage of the term appears in 1915 in the anonymous preface to the first Imagist anthology. The main author of this preface was Richard Aldington. The preface states: "We do not insist upon 'free-verse' as the only method of writing poetry. We fight for it as for a principle of liberty." Ezra Pound, one of the prime movers of Imagism. ... Richard Aldington in uniform during World War I Richard Aldington (July 8, 1892 – July 27, 1962), name at birth Edward Godfree Aldington, was an English writer and poet. ...

The ideal of the early practitioners of free verse was well described by Ezra Pound, who wrote: "As regarding rhythm: to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase, not in sequence of a metronome."^[2] D. H. Lawrence wrote that Whitman "pruned away his clichés — perhaps his clichés of rhythm as well as of phrase" and that all one could do with free verse was "get rid of the stereotyped movements and the old hackneyed associations of sound and sense".^[3] Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (Hailey, Idaho Territory, United States, October 30, 1885 – Venice, Italy, November 1, 1972) was an American expatriate poet, critic and intellectual who was a major figure of the Modernist movement in early-to-mid 20th century poetry. ... In music a phrase (Greek φράση, sentence, expression, see also strophe) is a section of music that is relatively self contained and coherent over a medium time scale. ... A mechanical wind-up metronome in motion A digital metronome set to pulse at four beats per measure at a tempo of 130 BPM A metronome is any device that produces a regulated audible and/or visual pulse, usually used to establish a steady beat, or tempo, measured in beats... David Herbert Richards Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer of the 20th century, whose prolific and diverse output included novels, short stories, poems, plays, essays, travel books, paintings, translations, literary criticism, and personal letters. ...

Some poets have explained that free verse, despite its freedom, must still display some elements of form. Pound's friend T. S. Eliot wrote: "No verse is free for the man who wants to do a good job."^[4] 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."^[5] Thomas Stearns Eliot, OM (September 26, 1888 – January 4, 1965), was a poet, dramatist and literary critic. ... Donald Hall (born September 20, 1928) is an American poet and the U.S. Poet Laureate. ... A Rondeau is a form of French poetry with 13 lines written on two rhymes, as well as a corresponding musical form developed to set this characteristic verse structure. ...

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 later remarked that writing free verse was like "playing tennis without a net". Bridges on the cover of Time in 1929 Robert Seymour Bridges, OM, (October 23, 1844 – April 21, 1930) was an English poet, holder of the honour of poet laureate from 1913. ... Humdrum and Harum-Scarum: A Lecture on Free Verse is an essay by the poet Robert Bridges, first published in November 1922 in both the North American Review and the In it Bridges explains what he regards as the adverse conditions that free verse imposes upon a poet: loss of... Robert Lee Frost (March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963) was an American poet. ...

Precursors

As the name vers libre suggests, this technique of using more irregular cadences is often said to derive from the practices of 19th century French poets such as Gustave Kahn and Jules Laforgue. However, in English the sort of cadencing that we now recognize as a variety of free verse can be traced back at least as far as the King James Bible. Walt Whitman, who based his verse approach on the Bible, was the major precursor for modern poets writing free verse, though they were reluctant to acknowledge his influence. Gustave Kahn (December 21, 1859 - September 5, 1936) was a French Symbolist poet and art critic. ... Jules Laforgue (August 16, 1860–August 20, 1887) was a French poet born in Montevideo, Uruguay. ... This page is about the version of the Bible; for the Harvey Danger album, see King James Version (album). ...

Many poets of the Victorian era experimented with form. Christina Rossetti, Coventry Patmore, and T. E. Brown all wrote examples of unpatterned rhymed verse. Matthew Arnold's poem Philomela contains some rhyme but is very free. Poems such as W. E. Henley's 'Discharged' (from his In Hospital sequence), and Robert Louis Stevenson's poems 'The Light-Keeper' and 'The Cruel Mistress' could be counted early examples of free verse.^[6] Christina Rossetti Christina Georgina Rossetti (December 5, 1830 – December 29, 1894) was an English poet. ... Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore (July 23, 1823 - November 26, 1896) was an English poet and critic. ... Thomas Edward Brown (May 5, 1830 - October 29, 1897), British poet, scholar and divine, was born at Douglas, Isle of Man. ... Matthew Arnold Caricature from Punch, 1881: Admit that Homer sometimes nods, That poets do write trash, Our Bard has written Balder Dead, And also Balder-dash Family tree Matthew Arnold (24 December 1822 – 15 April 1888) was an English poet and cultural critic, who worked as an inspector of schools. ... William Ernest Henley (August 23, 1849 - July 11, 1903) was a British poet, critic and editor. ... Robert Louis (Balfour) Stevenson (November 13, 1850–December 3, 1894), was a Scottish novelist, poet and travel writer, and a representative of neo-romanticism in English literature. ...

In France, free verse was occasionally used by symbolist Arthur Rimbaud. In the Netherlands, tachtiger (i.e. member of 1880s generation of innovative poets) Frederik van Eeden also employed the form at least once (in his poem Waterlelie ["water lily"] [1]). Rimbaud redirects here. ... Frederik van Eeden (born Haarlem, Netherlands, 1860) was a late 19th century and early 20th century Dutch writer and psychiatrist. ...

References

• G. Burns Cooper, Mysterious Music: Rhythm and Free Verse, Stanford University Press, 1998
• Charles O. Hartman, Free Verse: An Essay on Prosody, Northwestern University Press, 1980. ISBN 0-8101-1316-3
• Philip Hobsbaum, Metre, Rhythm and Verse Form
• H. T. Kirby-Smith, The Origins of Free Verse, University of Michigan, 1996. ISBN 0-472-08565-4.
• Timothy Steele, Missing Measures: Modern Poetry and the Revolt Against Meter, University of Arkansas Press, 1990. From about 1983 a man called Harneil from India had put poetry to a whole new level.

Philip Hobsbaum (born 29 June 1932) is an academic, poet and critic. ... There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ... Timothy Steele (born 1948) is a United States poet. ...

Notes