Free Verse: Definition and Examples

Poetry has the power to capture our imaginations and thrill our senses with lines that exude musicality. This unique quality might come in the form of rhymes, but a poem written in free verse can be just as potent. 

Free verse is a literary device wherein a poem is not limited by regular meter, regular rhythm, or rhyme schemes. Instead, the poet uses other techniques, such as alliteration or cadence. 

Different Types of Poetry 

To help you understand free verse better, let’s compare it to the other types of poetry: 

  • Formal verse: Poems that follow a strict meter and rhyme scheme 
  • Blank verse: Poems that use a strict meter, but do not following a rhyme scheme 
  • Free verse: Poems that don’t follow a strict meter or rhyme scheme

Features of Free Verse

Another word for free verse is “vers libre,” the French term meaning “free verse.” Poems written in free verse have the following qualities:

  • Poems in free verse do not follow regular meter or regular rhythm.
  • Free verse poems do not need to follow a regular rhyme scheme.
  • Free verse poems use normal pauses and the natural rhythm of phrases, instead of the artificial limitations of regular poetry.
  • Free verse poems do not have specific requirements for the length or number of stanzas; therefore, the poet has the discretion to follow regular lengths of stanzas or to vary them throughout the poem. 
  • Prose poetry is a form of free verse poetry that doesn’t have line breaks, and instead comes in the form of paragraphs. 

Can You Rhyme in a Free Verse Poem? 

Yes! You may also use rhythm and rhyme as you deem suitable. The main difference with formal verse is that you are not required to adhere to the rhythm and rhyme in a regular pattern, and can just throw in rhythm and rhyme wherever you feel they add to the beauty of the sound.

Why Do Writers Use Free Verse? 

One of the reasons why some poets have chosen this technique is to change people’s minds in a whimsical way. It challenges readers to imagine the scenes through the intonations of the phrases, instead of the stressed-unstressed patterns that meters give. 

Another reason is that free verse gives you more freedom to choose words and decide how to convey their meanings. This also means that the elements feel less artificial, because they are not constrained by existing structures. 

Matthew Arnold and Walt Whitman were two of the more prominent poets who explored the possibilities of free verse back in the 19th century. By the early 1900s, most of the published poems were already written in free verse. 

Other poets who are known for using free verse in their poetry are William Carlos Williams, Emily Dickinson, John Ashbery, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Carl Sandburg, Wallace Stevens, and Marianne Moore. 

Examples of Free Verse in Literature 

To get a clearer idea of free verse, see these examples below. We encourage you to read these out loud to hear how a poem can still have a musical feel even without following strict rhythm, meter, or rhyme: 

1. “I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing” by Walt Whitman

I saw in Louisiana a live-oak growing,
All alone stood it and the moss hung down from the branches,
Without any companion it grew there uttering joyous leaves of dark green,
And its look, rude, unbending, lusty, made me think of myself,
But I wonder’d how it could utter joyous leaves standing alone there without its friend near, for I knew I could not,
And I broke off a twig with a certain number of leaves upon it, and twined around it a little moss,
And brought it away, and I have placed it in sight in my room,
It is not needed to remind me as of my own dear friends,
(For I believe lately I think of little else than of them,)
Yet it remains to me a curious token, it makes me think of manly love;
For all that, and though the live-oak glistens there in Louisiana solitary in a wide flat space,
Uttering joyous leaves all its life without a friend a lover near,
I know very well I could not.

2. Excerpt From “My Philosophy of Life” by John Ashbery 

Just when I thought there wasn’t room enough
for another thought in my head, I had this great idea—
call it a philosophy of life, if you will.  Briefly,
it involved living the way philosophers live,
according to a set of principles. OK, but which ones?

3. Excerpt from “Portrait of a Lady” by T.S. Eliot 

Among the smoke and fog of a December afternoon 
You have the scene arrange itself—as it will seem to do— 
With “I have saved this afternoon for you”; 
And four wax candles in the darkened room, 
Four rings of light upon the ceiling overhead, 
An atmosphere of Juliet’s tomb 
Prepared for all the things to be said, or left unsaid. 
We have been, let us say, to hear the latest 
Pole Transmit the Preludes, through his hair and fingertips. 
“So intimate, this Chopin, that I think his soul 
Should be resurrected only among friends 
Some two or three, who will not touch the bloom 
That is rubbed and questioned in the concert room.”

4. “April” by Ezra Pound 

Three spirits came to me
And drew me apart
To where the olive boughs
Lay stripped upon the ground: 
Pale carnage beneath bright mist. 

How Do You Write a Free Verse?

When it comes to starting a free verse, the initial steps aren’t that different for writing any other type of poem. You’ll have to decide on a subject that inspires you, and brainstorm the key images, ideas, and feelings you want to convey.

However, free verse is different because you aren’t confined by rules or any tight structures—but all that freedom doesn’t necessarily make it easier!

Start by getting everything down on paper. Use literary devices and figures of speech to create vivid images and tell the story.

Then, read through your poem and check that the sequence makes sense and that each line flows into the other. Keep rereading and editing until it flows effortlessly and conveys the intended feelings.

Does Free Verse Have Stanzas?

Contemporary free verse poetry is not limited to a certain number of stanzas or rules regulating the length of stanzas.

A free verse poem can feature the following types of stanzas:

  • A single stanza (the whole poem makes one stanza)
  • Several stanzas with equal numbers of lines
  • Several stanzas with different numbers of lines

Using Free Verse 

If you want to write poetry, you can choose to write in set meters or rhyme schemes; learning all the different types of poetry will give you a great variety of styles to write in. 

But you can also explore the challenge of creating music with your words in free verse without the constraints of meters or rhyme patterns. If you haven’t tried it yet, give it a try! 

Did you find this post helpful? Let us know in the comments below!

 

If you enjoyed this post, then you might also like:

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