Definition: Free verse refers to poems that are “characterized by their nonconformity to established patterns of meter, rhyme, and stanza” (Meyer). Despite this lack of conformity, they still rely on “rhythm and cadence for [the] poetic form” (CL 121). However, they “seem to disappoint the reader’s expectation for a formal meter” (RPO). “Speech patterns, grammar, emphasis, and breath pauses” also help decide line breaks (Meyer). Free verse topics “are typically quite philosophical or abstract—but intriguing” (CL 121). Poets in the early 20th century “were the first to write what they called ‘free verse’ which allowed them to break from the formula and rigidity of traditional poetry” (Poetry).
Examples:
“The Hollow Men” –T.S. Eliot (1925)
Mistah Kurtz—he dead.
A penny for the Old Guy.
I
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar
Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;
Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death’s other Kingdom
Remember us—if at all—not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.
II
Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
In death’s dream kingdom
These do not appear:
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column
There, is a tree swinging
And voices are
In the wind’s singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.
Let me be no nearer
In death’s dream kingdom
Let me also wear
Such deliberate disguises
Rat’s coat, crowskin, crossed staves
In a field
Behaving as the wind behaves
No nearer—
Not that final meeting
In the twilight kingdom
III
This is the dead land
This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man’s hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.
Is it like this
In death’s other kingdom
Walking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone.
IV
The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms
In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river
Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death’s twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men.
V
Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o’clock in the morning.
Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
From Falling in Love is Like Owning a Dog: An Epithalamion –Taylor Mali
First of all, it’s a big responsibility,
especially in a city like New York.
So think long and hard before deciding on love.
On the other hand, love gives you a sense of security:
when you’re walking down the street late at night
and you have a leash on love
ain’t no one going to mess with you.
Love doesn’t like being left alone for long.
But come home and love is always happy to see you.
It may break a few things accidentally in its passion for life,
but you can never be mad at love for long.
Is love good all the time? No! No!
Love can be bad. Bad, love, bad! Very bad love.
Sometimes love just wants to go for a nice long walk.
It runs you around the block and leaves you panting.
It pulls you in several different directions at once,
or winds around and around you
until you’re all wound up and can’t move.
But love makes you meet people wherever you go.
People who have nothing in common but love
stop and talk to each other on the street.
Throw things away and love will bring them back,
again, and again, and again.
But most of all, love needs love, lots of it.
And in return, love loves you and never stops.
“Harlem Night Song” –Langston Hughes
Come,
Let us roam the night together
Singing.
I love you.
Across
The Harlem roof-tops
Moon is shining.
Night sky is blue.
Stars are great drops
Of golden dew.
Down the street
A band is playing.
I love you.
Come,
Let us roam the night together
Singing.
Works Cited
Darigan, Daniel L., Michael O. Tunnell, and James S. Jacobs. Children’s Literature: Engaging Teachers and Children in Good Books. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, 2002.
“Free verse.” Meyer Literature: Glossary of Literary Terms. 2 November 2009. http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/literature/bedlit/glossary_f.htm
“Free verse.” Representative Poetry Online (RPO). 2 November 2009. http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/display_rpo/terminology.cfm#lyric
“Free verse.” Types of Poetry. 2 November 2009. http://www.types-of-poetry.org.uk/24-free-verse.htm
Poems
Eliot, T.S. “The Hollow Men.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Twentieth Century and After. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2006. 2309.
Hughes, Langston. “Harlem Night Song.” A Family of Poems: My Favorite Poetry for Children. Caroline Kennedy. New York, NY: Hyperion Books for Children, 2005. 123.
Mali, Taylor. “From Falling in Love is Like Owning a Dog: An Epithalamion.” A Family of Poems: My Favorite Poetry for Children. Caroline Kennedy. New York, NY: Hyperion Books for Children, 2005. 33.
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