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<span>Definition</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Definition-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Vers_libre" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Vers_libre"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">3</span> <span>Vers libre</span> </div> </a> <button aria-controls="toc-Vers_libre-sublist" class="cdx-button cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only vector-toc-toggle"> <span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-expand"></span> <span>Toggle Vers libre subsection</span> </button> <ul id="toc-Vers_libre-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> <li id="toc-Form_and_structure" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Form_and_structure"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">3.1</span> <span>Form and structure</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Form_and_structure-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Antecedents" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Antecedents"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">4</span> <span>Antecedents</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Antecedents-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-See_also" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#See_also"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">5</span> <span>See also</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-See_also-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-References" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#References"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">6</span> <span>References</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-References-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Further_reading" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Further_reading"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">7</span> <span>Further reading</span> </div> </a> <button aria-controls="toc-Further_reading-sublist" class="cdx-button cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only vector-toc-toggle"> <span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-expand"></span> <span>Toggle Further reading subsection</span> </button> <ul id="toc-Further_reading-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> <li id="toc-On_vers_libre" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#On_vers_libre"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">7.1</span> <span>On vers libre</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-On_vers_libre-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-External_links" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#External_links"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">8</span> <span>External links</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-External_links-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> </ul> </div> </div> </nav> </div> </div> <div class="mw-content-container"> <main id="content" class="mw-body"> <header class="mw-body-header vector-page-titlebar"> <nav aria-label="Contents" class="vector-toc-landmark"> <div id="vector-page-titlebar-toc" class="vector-dropdown vector-page-titlebar-toc vector-button-flush-left" > <input type="checkbox" id="vector-page-titlebar-toc-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-vector-page-titlebar-toc" class="vector-dropdown-checkbox " aria-label="Toggle the table of contents" > <label id="vector-page-titlebar-toc-label" for="vector-page-titlebar-toc-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only " aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-listBullet mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-listBullet"></span> <span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">Toggle the table of contents</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div id="vector-page-titlebar-toc-unpinned-container" class="vector-unpinned-container"> </div> </div> </div> </nav> <h1 id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading mw-first-heading"><span class="mw-page-title-main">Free verse</span></h1> <div id="p-lang-btn" class="vector-dropdown mw-portlet mw-portlet-lang" > <input type="checkbox" id="p-lang-btn-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-p-lang-btn" class="vector-dropdown-checkbox mw-interlanguage-selector" aria-label="Go to an article in another language. Available in 48 languages" > <label id="p-lang-btn-label" for="p-lang-btn-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--action-progressive mw-portlet-lang-heading-48" aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-language-progressive mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-language-progressive"></span> <span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">48 languages</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ar mw-list-item"><a href="https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%B4%D8%B9%D8%B1_%D8%AD%D8%B1" title="شعر حر – Arabic" lang="ar" hreflang="ar" data-title="شعر حر" data-language-autonym="العربية" data-language-local-name="Arabic" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>العربية</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-az mw-list-item"><a href="https://az.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C9%99rb%C9%99st_%C5%9Feir" title="Sərbəst şeir – Azerbaijani" lang="az" hreflang="az" data-title="Sərbəst şeir" data-language-autonym="Azərbaycanca" data-language-local-name="Azerbaijani" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Azərbaycanca</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-be mw-list-item"><a href="https://be.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%92%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%BB%D1%96%D0%B1%D1%80" title="Верлібр – Belarusian" lang="be" hreflang="be" data-title="Верлібр" data-language-autonym="Беларуская" data-language-local-name="Belarusian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Беларуская</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-be-x-old mw-list-item"><a href="https://be-tarask.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%92%D1%8D%D1%80%D0%BB%D1%96%D0%B1%D1%80" title="Вэрлібр – Belarusian (Taraškievica orthography)" lang="be-tarask" hreflang="be-tarask" data-title="Вэрлібр" data-language-autonym="Беларуская (тарашкевіца)" data-language-local-name="Belarusian (Taraškievica orthography)" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Беларуская (тарашкевіца)</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-bs mw-list-item"><a href="https://bs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slobodni_stih" title="Slobodni stih – Bosnian" lang="bs" hreflang="bs" data-title="Slobodni stih" data-language-autonym="Bosanski" data-language-local-name="Bosnian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Bosanski</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ca mw-list-item"><a href="https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vers_lliure" title="Vers lliure – Catalan" lang="ca" hreflang="ca" data-title="Vers lliure" data-language-autonym="Català" data-language-local-name="Catalan" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Català</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-cv mw-list-item"><a href="https://cv.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%98%D1%80%C4%95%D0%BA%D0%BB%C4%95_%D1%81%C4%83%D0%B2%C4%83" title="Ирĕклĕ сăвă – Chuvash" lang="cv" hreflang="cv" data-title="Ирĕклĕ сăвă" data-language-autonym="Чӑвашла" data-language-local-name="Chuvash" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Чӑвашла</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-cs mw-list-item"><a href="https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voln%C3%BD_ver%C5%A1" title="Volný verš – Czech" lang="cs" hreflang="cs" data-title="Volný verš" data-language-autonym="Čeština" data-language-local-name="Czech" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Čeština</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-cy mw-list-item"><a href="https://cy.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canu_rhydd" title="Canu rhydd – Welsh" lang="cy" hreflang="cy" data-title="Canu rhydd" data-language-autonym="Cymraeg" data-language-local-name="Welsh" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Cymraeg</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-de mw-list-item"><a href="https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freier_Vers" title="Freier Vers – German" lang="de" hreflang="de" data-title="Freier Vers" data-language-autonym="Deutsch" data-language-local-name="German" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Deutsch</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-el mw-list-item"><a href="https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%95%CE%BB%CE%B5%CF%8D%CE%B8%CE%B5%CF%81%CE%BF%CF%82_%CF%83%CF%84%CE%AF%CF%87%CE%BF%CF%82" title="Ελεύθερος στίχος – Greek" lang="el" hreflang="el" data-title="Ελεύθερος στίχος" data-language-autonym="Ελληνικά" data-language-local-name="Greek" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Ελληνικά</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-es mw-list-item"><a href="https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verso_libre" title="Verso libre – Spanish" lang="es" hreflang="es" data-title="Verso libre" data-language-autonym="Español" data-language-local-name="Spanish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Español</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-eo mw-list-item"><a href="https://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libera_verso" title="Libera verso – Esperanto" lang="eo" hreflang="eo" data-title="Libera verso" data-language-autonym="Esperanto" data-language-local-name="Esperanto" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Esperanto</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-eu mw-list-item"><a href="https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lerro_aske" title="Lerro aske – Basque" lang="eu" hreflang="eu" data-title="Lerro aske" data-language-autonym="Euskara" data-language-local-name="Basque" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Euskara</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-fa mw-list-item"><a href="https://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%B4%D8%B9%D8%B1_%D8%B3%D9%BE%DB%8C%D8%AF" title="شعر سپید – Persian" lang="fa" hreflang="fa" data-title="شعر سپید" data-language-autonym="فارسی" data-language-local-name="Persian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>فارسی</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-fr mw-list-item"><a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vers_libre" title="Vers libre – French" lang="fr" hreflang="fr" data-title="Vers libre" data-language-autonym="Français" data-language-local-name="French" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Français</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-gl mw-list-item"><a href="https://gl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verso_libre" title="Verso libre – Galician" lang="gl" hreflang="gl" data-title="Verso libre" data-language-autonym="Galego" data-language-local-name="Galician" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Galego</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-gan mw-list-item"><a href="https://gan.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%87%AA%E7%94%B1%E8%A9%A9" title="自由詩 – Gan" lang="gan" hreflang="gan" data-title="自由詩" data-language-autonym="贛語" data-language-local-name="Gan" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>贛語</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ko mw-list-item"><a href="https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%EC%9E%90%EC%9C%A0%EC%8B%9C_(%EB%AC%B8%ED%95%99)" title="자유시 (문학) – Korean" lang="ko" hreflang="ko" data-title="자유시 (문학)" data-language-autonym="한국어" data-language-local-name="Korean" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>한국어</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-hy mw-list-item"><a href="https://hy.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D4%B1%D5%A6%D5%A1%D5%BF_%D5%B8%D5%BF%D5%A1%D5%B6%D5%A1%D5%BE%D5%B8%D6%80" title="Ազատ ոտանավոր – Armenian" lang="hy" hreflang="hy" data-title="Ազատ ոտանավոր" data-language-autonym="Հայերեն" data-language-local-name="Armenian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Հայերեն</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-hi mw-list-item"><a href="https://hi.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A4%AE%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%95%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%9B%E0%A4%A8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A6" title="मुक्तछन्द – Hindi" lang="hi" hreflang="hi" data-title="मुक्तछन्द" data-language-autonym="हिन्दी" data-language-local-name="Hindi" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>हिन्दी</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-it mw-list-item"><a href="https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verso_libero" title="Verso libero – Italian" lang="it" hreflang="it" data-title="Verso libero" data-language-autonym="Italiano" data-language-local-name="Italian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Italiano</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ka mw-list-item"><a href="https://ka.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E1%83%95%E1%83%94%E1%83%A0%E1%83%9A%E1%83%98%E1%83%91%E1%83%A0%E1%83%98" title="ვერლიბრი – Georgian" lang="ka" hreflang="ka" data-title="ვერლიბრი" data-language-autonym="ქართული" data-language-local-name="Georgian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>ქართული</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-la mw-list-item"><a href="https://la.wikipedia.org/wiki/Versus_liber" title="Versus liber – Latin" lang="la" hreflang="la" data-title="Versus liber" data-language-autonym="Latina" data-language-local-name="Latin" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Latina</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-lv mw-list-item"><a href="https://lv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verlibrs" title="Verlibrs – Latvian" lang="lv" hreflang="lv" data-title="Verlibrs" data-language-autonym="Latviešu" data-language-local-name="Latvian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Latviešu</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-lt mw-list-item"><a href="https://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verlibras" title="Verlibras – Lithuanian" lang="lt" hreflang="lt" data-title="Verlibras" data-language-autonym="Lietuvių" data-language-local-name="Lithuanian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Lietuvių</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-nl mw-list-item"><a href="https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vrije_po%C3%ABzie" title="Vrije poëzie – Dutch" lang="nl" hreflang="nl" data-title="Vrije poëzie" data-language-autonym="Nederlands" data-language-local-name="Dutch" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Nederlands</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ja mw-list-item"><a href="https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%87%AA%E7%94%B1%E8%A9%A9" title="自由詩 – Japanese" lang="ja" hreflang="ja" data-title="自由詩" data-language-autonym="日本語" data-language-local-name="Japanese" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>日本語</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-pa mw-list-item"><a href="https://pa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A8%96%E0%A9%81%E0%A9%B1%E0%A8%B2%E0%A9%8D%E0%A8%B9%E0%A9%80_%E0%A8%95%E0%A8%B5%E0%A8%BF%E0%A8%A4%E0%A8%BE" title="ਖੁੱਲ੍ਹੀ ਕਵਿਤਾ – Punjabi" lang="pa" hreflang="pa" data-title="ਖੁੱਲ੍ਹੀ ਕਵਿਤਾ" data-language-autonym="ਪੰਜਾਬੀ" data-language-local-name="Punjabi" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>ਪੰਜਾਬੀ</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-pnb mw-list-item"><a href="https://pnb.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%A2%D8%B2%D8%A7%D8%AF_%D9%86%D8%B8%D9%85" title="آزاد نظم – Western Punjabi" lang="pnb" hreflang="pnb" data-title="آزاد نظم" data-language-autonym="پنجابی" data-language-local-name="Western Punjabi" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>پنجابی</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ps mw-list-item"><a href="https://ps.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%A7%D8%B2%D8%A7%D8%AF_%D8%B4%D8%B9%D8%B1" title="ازاد شعر – Pashto" lang="ps" hreflang="ps" data-title="ازاد شعر" data-language-autonym="پښتو" data-language-local-name="Pashto" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>پښتو</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-pl mw-list-item"><a href="https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiersz_wolny" title="Wiersz wolny – Polish" lang="pl" hreflang="pl" data-title="Wiersz wolny" data-language-autonym="Polski" data-language-local-name="Polish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Polski</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-pt mw-list-item"><a href="https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verso_livre" title="Verso livre – Portuguese" lang="pt" hreflang="pt" data-title="Verso livre" data-language-autonym="Português" data-language-local-name="Portuguese" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Português</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ro mw-list-item"><a href="https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vers_liber" title="Vers liber – Romanian" lang="ro" hreflang="ro" data-title="Vers liber" data-language-autonym="Română" data-language-local-name="Romanian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Română</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ru mw-list-item"><a href="https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A1%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%B1%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%B9_%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B8%D1%85" title="Свободный стих – Russian" lang="ru" hreflang="ru" data-title="Свободный стих" data-language-autonym="Русский" data-language-local-name="Russian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Русский</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-sq mw-list-item"><a href="https://sq.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vargu_i_lir%C3%AB" title="Vargu i lirë – Albanian" lang="sq" hreflang="sq" data-title="Vargu i lirë" data-language-autonym="Shqip" data-language-local-name="Albanian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Shqip</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-simple mw-list-item"><a href="https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_verse" title="Free verse – Simple English" lang="en-simple" hreflang="en-simple" data-title="Free verse" data-language-autonym="Simple English" data-language-local-name="Simple English" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Simple English</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-sd mw-list-item"><a href="https://sd.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%A2%D8%B2%D8%A7%D8%AF_%D9%86%D8%B8%D9%85" title="آزاد نظم – Sindhi" lang="sd" hreflang="sd" data-title="آزاد نظم" data-language-autonym="سنڌي" data-language-local-name="Sindhi" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>سنڌي</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-sr mw-list-item"><a href="https://sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A1%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B1%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%BD%D0%B8_%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B8%D1%85" title="Слободни стих – Serbian" lang="sr" hreflang="sr" data-title="Слободни стих" data-language-autonym="Српски / srpski" data-language-local-name="Serbian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Српски / srpski</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-fi mw-list-item"><a href="https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vapaamittainen_runo" title="Vapaamittainen runo – Finnish" lang="fi" hreflang="fi" data-title="Vapaamittainen runo" data-language-autonym="Suomi" data-language-local-name="Finnish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Suomi</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-sv mw-list-item"><a href="https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fri_vers" title="Fri vers – Swedish" lang="sv" hreflang="sv" data-title="Fri vers" data-language-autonym="Svenska" data-language-local-name="Swedish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Svenska</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ta mw-list-item"><a href="https://ta.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%AE%AA%E0%AF%81%E0%AE%A4%E0%AF%81%E0%AE%95%E0%AF%8D%E0%AE%95%E0%AE%B5%E0%AE%BF%E0%AE%A4%E0%AF%88" title="புதுக்கவிதை – Tamil" lang="ta" hreflang="ta" data-title="புதுக்கவிதை" data-language-autonym="தமிழ்" data-language-local-name="Tamil" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>தமிழ்</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-tr mw-list-item"><a href="https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serbest_%C3%B6l%C3%A7%C3%BC" title="Serbest ölçü – Turkish" lang="tr" hreflang="tr" data-title="Serbest ölçü" data-language-autonym="Türkçe" data-language-local-name="Turkish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Türkçe</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-uk mw-list-item"><a href="https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%92%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%BB%D1%96%D0%B1%D1%80" title="Верлібр – Ukrainian" lang="uk" hreflang="uk" data-title="Верлібр" data-language-autonym="Українська" data-language-local-name="Ukrainian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Українська</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ur mw-list-item"><a href="https://ur.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%A2%D8%B2%D8%A7%D8%AF_%D9%86%D8%B8%D9%85" title="آزاد نظم – Urdu" lang="ur" hreflang="ur" data-title="آزاد نظم" data-language-autonym="اردو" data-language-local-name="Urdu" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>اردو</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-vi mw-list-item"><a href="https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C6%A1_t%E1%BB%B1_do" title="Thơ tự do – Vietnamese" lang="vi" hreflang="vi" data-title="Thơ tự do" data-language-autonym="Tiếng Việt" data-language-local-name="Vietnamese" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Tiếng Việt</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-wa mw-list-item"><a href="https://wa.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libe_powezeye" title="Libe powezeye – Walloon" lang="wa" hreflang="wa" data-title="Libe powezeye" data-language-autonym="Walon" data-language-local-name="Walloon" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Walon</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-zh mw-list-item"><a href="https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%87%AA%E7%94%B1%E8%AF%97" title="自由诗 – Chinese" lang="zh" hreflang="zh" data-title="自由诗" 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from <a href="/w/index.php?title=Vers_libre&redirect=no" class="mw-redirect" title="Vers libre">Vers libre</a>)</span></div></div> <div id="mw-content-text" class="mw-body-content"><div class="mw-content-ltr mw-parser-output" lang="en" dir="ltr"><div class="shortdescription nomobile noexcerpt noprint searchaux" style="display:none">Poetic style</div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1236090951">.mw-parser-output .hatnote{font-style:italic}.mw-parser-output div.hatnote{padding-left:1.6em;margin-bottom:0.5em}.mw-parser-output .hatnote i{font-style:normal}.mw-parser-output .hatnote+link+.hatnote{margin-top:-0.5em}@media print{body.ns-0 .mw-parser-output .hatnote{display:none!important}}</style><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Not to be confused with <a href="/wiki/Blank_verse" title="Blank verse">Blank verse</a>.</div> <p class="mw-empty-elt"> </p> <figure class="mw-default-size mw-halign-right" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:Is_5-e._e._cummings-0091.tif" class="mw-file-description"><img alt="A free verse poem by E. E. Cummings" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/98/Is_5-e._e._cummings-0091.tif/lossy-page1-220px-Is_5-e._e._cummings-0091.tif.jpg" decoding="async" width="220" height="352" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/98/Is_5-e._e._cummings-0091.tif/lossy-page1-330px-Is_5-e._e._cummings-0091.tif.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/98/Is_5-e._e._cummings-0091.tif/lossy-page1-440px-Is_5-e._e._cummings-0091.tif.jpg 2x" data-file-width="1554" data-file-height="2484" /></a><figcaption><i>Is 5</i> by <a href="/wiki/E._E._Cummings" title="E. E. Cummings">E. E. Cummings</a>, an example of free verse.</figcaption></figure> <p><b>Free verse</b> is an open form of <a href="/wiki/Poetry" title="Poetry">poetry</a> which does not use a prescribed or regular <a href="/wiki/Metre_(poetry)" title="Metre (poetry)">meter</a> or <a href="/wiki/Rhyme" title="Rhyme">rhyme</a><sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> and tends to follow the rhythm of <a href="/wiki/Natural_speech" class="mw-redirect" title="Natural speech">natural</a> or irregular speech. Free verse encompasses a large range of poetic form, and the distinction between free verse and other forms (such as prose) is often ambiguous.<sup id="cite_ref-deFord_2-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-deFord-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <meta property="mw:PageProp/toc" /> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="History">History</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Free_verse&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: History"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Though individual examples of English free verse poetry surfaced before the 20th-century (parts of John Milton's <i><a href="/wiki/Samson_Agonistes" title="Samson Agonistes">Samson Agonistes</a></i> or the majority of <a href="/wiki/Walt_Whitman" title="Walt Whitman">Walt Whitman</a>'s poetry, for example),<sup id="cite_ref-deFord_2-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-deFord-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> free verse is generally considered an early 20th century innovation of the late 19th-century French <i>vers libre</i>.<sup id="cite_ref-deFord_2-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-deFord-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p><a href="/wiki/T._E._Hulme" title="T. E. Hulme">T. E. Hulme</a> and <a href="/wiki/F._S._Flint" title="F. S. Flint">F. S. Flint</a> first introduced the form to the London-based <a href="/wiki/Poets%27_Club" title="Poets' Club">Poets' Club</a> in 1909.<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> This later became the heart of the <a href="/wiki/Imagism" title="Imagism">Imagist</a> movement<sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> through Flint's advocacy of the genre.<sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-7"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>7<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Imagism, in the wake of French Symbolism (i.e. vers libre of French Symbolist poets<sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-8"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>8<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>) was the wellspring out of which the main current of <a href="/wiki/Modernist_poetry" title="Modernist poetry">Modernism</a> in English flowed.<sup id="cite_ref-9" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-9"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>9<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> <a href="/wiki/T._S._Eliot" title="T. S. Eliot">T. S. Eliot</a> later identified this as "the point de repere usually taken as the starting point of modern poetry,"<sup id="cite_ref-10" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-10"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>10<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> as hundreds of poets were led to adopt vers libre as their medium.<sup id="cite_ref-11" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-11"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>11<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Definition">Definition</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Free_verse&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: Definition"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>It is said that verse is free "when it is not primarily obtained by the metered line."<sup id="cite_ref-allen_12-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-allen-12"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>12<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Free verse does not "proceed by a strict set of rules … is not a literary type, and does not conform to a formal structure," but 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."<sup id="cite_ref-allen_12-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-allen-12"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>12<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Free verse is as equally subject to elements of form (the poetic line, which may vary freely; rhythm; strophes or strophic rhythms; stanzaic patterns and rhythmic units or cadences) as other forms of poetry. <a href="/wiki/Donald_Hall" title="Donald Hall">Donald Hall</a> goes as far as to say that "the <i>form</i> of free verse is as binding and as liberating as the <i>form</i> of a <a href="/wiki/Rondeau_(poetry)" class="mw-redirect" title="Rondeau (poetry)">rondeau</a>,"<sup id="cite_ref-13" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-13"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>13<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> and <a href="/wiki/T._S._Eliot" title="T. S. Eliot">T. S. Eliot</a> wrote, "No verse is free for the man who wants to do a good job."<sup id="cite_ref-14" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-14"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>14<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p><a href="/wiki/Kenneth_Allott" title="Kenneth Allott">Kenneth Allott</a>, the poet and critic, said the adoption by some poets of <i><a href="/wiki/Vers_libre" class="mw-redirect" title="Vers libre">vers libre</a></i> arose from "mere desire for novelty, the imitation of <a href="/wiki/Walt_Whitman" title="Walt Whitman">Whitman</a>, the study of <a href="/wiki/English_literature" title="English literature">Jacobean</a> dramatic <a href="/wiki/Blank_verse" title="Blank verse">blank verse</a>, and the awareness of what French poets had already done to the <a href="/wiki/French_alexandrine" title="French alexandrine">alexandrine</a> in France."<sup id="cite_ref-15" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-15"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>15<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The American critic <a href="/wiki/John_Livingston_Lowes" title="John Livingston Lowes">John Livingston Lowes</a> in 1916 observed "Free verse may be written as very beautiful <a href="/wiki/Prose" title="Prose">prose</a>; prose may be written as very beautiful free verse. Which is which?"<sup id="cite_ref-16" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-16"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>16<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Some poets have considered free verse restrictive in its own way. In 1922, <a href="/wiki/Robert_Bridges" title="Robert Bridges">Robert Bridges</a> voiced his reservations in the essay "<a href="/wiki/Humdrum_and_Harum-Scarum" title="Humdrum and Harum-Scarum">Humdrum and Harum-Scarum</a>". <a href="/wiki/Robert_Frost" title="Robert Frost">Robert Frost</a>, in a comment regarding <a href="/wiki/Carl_Sandburg" title="Carl Sandburg">Carl Sandburg</a>, 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."<sup id="cite_ref-17" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-17"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>17<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-18" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-18"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>18<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> <a href="/wiki/William_Carlos_Williams" title="William Carlos Williams">William Carlos Williams</a> said, "Being an art form, a verse cannot be free in the sense of having no limitations or guiding principles."<sup id="cite_ref-19" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-19"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>19<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> <a href="/wiki/Yvor_Winters" title="Yvor Winters">Yvor Winters</a>, 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 <a href="/wiki/William_Carlos_Williams" title="William Carlos Williams">W.C. Williams</a>, <a href="/wiki/H._D." class="mw-redirect" title="H. D.">H. D.</a>, <a href="/wiki/Marianne_Moore" title="Marianne Moore">Marianne Moore</a>, <a href="/wiki/Wallace_Stevens" title="Wallace Stevens">Wallace Stevens</a>, and <a href="/wiki/Ezra_Pound" title="Ezra Pound">Ezra Pound</a>—is, in its peculiar fashion, the <a href="/wiki/Antithesis" title="Antithesis">antithesis</a> of free."<sup id="cite_ref-20" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-20"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>20<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>In <a href="/wiki/Welsh_poetry" title="Welsh poetry">Welsh poetry</a>, however, the term has a completely different meaning. According to <a href="/wiki/Jan_Morris" title="Jan Morris">Jan Morris</a>, "When Welsh poets speak of Free Verse, they mean forms like the <a href="/wiki/Sonnet" title="Sonnet">sonnet</a> or the <a href="/wiki/Ode" title="Ode">ode</a>, which obey the same rules as English <a href="/wiki/Metre_(poetry)" title="Metre (poetry)">poesy</a>. <a href="/wiki/Cerdd_dafod" title="Cerdd dafod">Strict Metres</a> verse still honours the <a href="/wiki/Cynghanedd" title="Cynghanedd">immensely complex rules</a> laid down for correct poetic composition 600 years ago."<sup id="cite_ref-21" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-21"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>21<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Vers_libre">Vers libre</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Free_verse&action=edit&section=3" title="Edit section: Vers libre"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p><b>Vers libre</b> is a free-verse poetic form of flexibility, complexity, and naturalness<sup id="cite_ref-22" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-22"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>22<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> created in the late 19th century in France, in 1886. It was largely through the activities of <i>La Vogue</i>, a weekly journal founded by <a href="/wiki/Gustave_Kahn" title="Gustave Kahn">Gustave Kahn</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-autogenerated1914_23-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-autogenerated1914-23"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>23<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> as well as the appearance of a band of poets unequaled at any one time in the history of French poetry.<sup id="cite_ref-24" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-24"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>24<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Their style of poetry was dubbed "Counter-Romanticism" and it was led by <a href="/wiki/Paul_Verlaine" title="Paul Verlaine">Verlaine</a>, <a href="/wiki/Arthur_Rimbaud" title="Arthur Rimbaud">Rimbaud</a>, <a href="/wiki/St%C3%A9phane_Mallarm%C3%A9" title="Stéphane Mallarmé">Mallarmé</a>, <a href="/wiki/Jules_Laforgue" title="Jules Laforgue">Laforgue</a> and <a href="/wiki/Tristan_Corbi%C3%A8re" title="Tristan Corbière">Corbière.</a><sup id="cite_ref-25" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-25"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>25<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> It was concerned with <a href="/wiki/Synesthesia" title="Synesthesia">synaethesis</a> (the harmony or equilibrium of sensation)<sup id="cite_ref-26" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-26"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>26<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> and later described as "the moment when French poetry began to take consciousness of itself as poetry."<sup id="cite_ref-27" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-27"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>27<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Gustave Kahn was commonly supposed to have invented the term vers libre and according to <a href="/wiki/F._S._Flint" title="F. S. Flint">F. S. Flint</a>, he "was undoubtedly the first theorist of the technique(s)."<sup id="cite_ref-28" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-28"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>28<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Later in 1912, Robert de Souza published his conclusion on the genre, voicing that<sup id="cite_ref-29" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-29"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>29<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> "A vers libre was possible which would keep all the essential characteristics of <i>vers Classique</i>, but would free it from the encumbrances which usage had made appear indispensable."<sup id="cite_ref-autogenerated1986_30-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-autogenerated1986-30"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>30<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> 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.<sup id="cite_ref-31" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-31"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>31<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>The formal stimuli for vers libre were <i>vers libéré</i> (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 <i>vers libre Classique</i> (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 <i>vers Populaire</i> (versification derived from oral aspects of popular song).<sup id="cite_ref-autogenerated1914_23-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-autogenerated1914-23"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>23<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> <a href="/wiki/Remy_de_Gourmont" title="Remy de Gourmont">Remy de Gourmont</a>'s <i>Livre des Masques</i> gave definition to the whole vers libre movement;<sup id="cite_ref-32" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-32"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>32<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> he notes that there should arise, at regular intervals, a full and complete line, which reassures the ear and guides the rhythm.<sup id="cite_ref-33" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-33"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>33<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Form_and_structure">Form and structure</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Free_verse&action=edit&section=4" title="Edit section: Form and structure"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>The unit of vers libre is not the foot, the number of the syllables, the quantity, or the line. The unit is the <a href="/wiki/Strophe" title="Strophe">strophe</a>, which may be the whole poem or only a part. Each strophe is a complete circle.<sup id="cite_ref-34" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-34"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>34<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Vers libre is "verse-formal based upon <a href="/wiki/Cadence_(poetry)" title="Cadence (poetry)">cadence</a> that allows the lines to flow as they will when read aloud by an intelligent reader."<sup id="cite_ref-35" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-35"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>35<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Unrhymed <a href="/wiki/Cadence_(poetry)" title="Cadence (poetry)">cadence</a> 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.<sup id="cite_ref-36" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-36"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>36<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> For vers libre addresses the ear, not the eye.<sup id="cite_ref-37" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-37"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>37<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Vers libre is liberated from traditional rules concerning meter, caesura, and line end stopping.<sup id="cite_ref-38" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-38"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>38<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> 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.<sup id="cite_ref-autogenerated1986_30-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-autogenerated1986-30"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>30<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> 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.<sup id="cite_ref-39" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-39"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>39<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>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 <a href="/wiki/Walt_Whitman" title="Walt Whitman">Walt Whitman</a>'s poems, where he repeats certain phrases and uses commas to create both a rhythm and structure. </p><p>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.<sup id="cite_ref-40" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-40"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>40<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> With the <a href="/wiki/Imagists" class="mw-redirect" title="Imagists">Imagists</a> free verse became a discipline and acquired status as a legitimate poetic form.<sup id="cite_ref-41" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-41"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>41<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> <a href="/wiki/Herbert_Read" title="Herbert Read">Herbert Read</a>, however, noted that "the Imagist <a href="/wiki/Ezra_Pound" title="Ezra Pound">Ezra Pound</a> gave free verse its musical structure to an extent that paradoxically it was no longer free."<sup id="cite_ref-42" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-42"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>42<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>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. </p><p>Technically, free verse has been described as spaced prose, a mosaic of verse and prose experience.<sup id="cite_ref-43" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-43"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>43<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Antecedents">Antecedents</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Free_verse&action=edit&section=5" title="Edit section: Antecedents"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>As the <a href="/wiki/French-language" class="mw-redirect" title="French-language">French-language</a> term <i>vers libre</i> 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 <a href="/wiki/Gustave_Kahn" title="Gustave Kahn">Gustave Kahn</a> and <a href="/wiki/Jules_Laforgue" title="Jules Laforgue">Jules Laforgue</a>, in his <i>Derniers vers</i> of 1890. Taupin, the US-based French poet and critic, concluded that free verse and <i>vers libre</i> are not synonymous, since "the French language tends to give equal <a href="/wiki/Syllable_weight" title="Syllable weight">weight</a> to each spoken syllable, whereas English syllables vary in quantity according to whether <a href="/wiki/Stress_(linguistics)" title="Stress (linguistics)">stressed or unstressed</a>."<sup id="cite_ref-44" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-44"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>44<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>The sort of cadencing that we now recognize in free verse can be traced back at least as far as the <a href="/wiki/Biblical_Hebrew" title="Biblical Hebrew">Biblical Hebrew</a> <a href="/wiki/Psalmist" class="mw-redirect" title="Psalmist">psalmist</a> poetry of the <a href="/wiki/Bible" title="Bible">Bible</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-allen_12-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-allen-12"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>12<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> By referring to the <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Psalms" class="extiw" title="s:Psalms">Psalms</a>, it is possible to argue that free verse in English first appeared in the 1380s in the <a href="/wiki/John_Wycliffe" title="John Wycliffe">John Wycliffe</a> translation of the <a href="/wiki/Psalms" title="Psalms">Psalms</a> and was repeated in different form in most <a href="/wiki/Biblical_translation" class="mw-redirect" title="Biblical translation">biblical translations</a> ever since. </p><p><a href="/wiki/Walt_Whitman" title="Walt Whitman">Walt Whitman</a>, who based his long lines in his poetry collection <i><a href="/wiki/Leaves_of_Grass" title="Leaves of Grass">Leaves of Grass</a></i> on the phrasing of the <a href="/wiki/King_James_Bible" class="mw-redirect" title="King James Bible">King James Bible</a>, influenced later American free verse composers, notably <a href="/wiki/Allen_Ginsberg" title="Allen Ginsberg">Allen Ginsberg</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-Kirby-Smith1998_45-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Kirby-Smith1998-45"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>45<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> One form of free verse was employed by <a href="/wiki/Christopher_Smart" title="Christopher Smart">Christopher Smart</a> in his long poem <i><a href="/wiki/Jubilate_Agno" title="Jubilate Agno">Jubilate Agno</a></i> (<a href="/wiki/Latin" title="Latin">Latin</a>: <i>Rejoice in the Lamb</i>), written some time between 1759 and 1763 but not published until 1939. </p><p>Many poets of the <a href="/wiki/Victorian_era" title="Victorian era">Victorian era</a> experimented with free verse. <a href="/wiki/Christina_Rossetti" title="Christina Rossetti">Christina Rossetti</a>, <a href="/wiki/Coventry_Patmore" title="Coventry Patmore">Coventry Patmore</a>, and <a href="/wiki/T._E._Brown" class="mw-redirect" title="T. E. Brown">T. E. Brown</a> all wrote examples of rhymed but unmetered verse, poems such as <a href="/wiki/W._E._Henley" class="mw-redirect" title="W. E. Henley">W. E. Henley</a>'s "Discharged" (from his <i>In Hospital</i> sequence). </p><p>Free verse in English was persuasively advocated by critic <a href="/wiki/T._E._Hulme" title="T. E. Hulme">T. E. Hulme</a> in his <i><a href="/wiki/A_Lecture_on_Modern_Poetry" title="A Lecture on Modern Poetry">A Lecture on Modern Poetry</a></i> (1908). Later in the preface to <i>Some Imagist Poets</i> 1916, he comments, "Only the name is new, you will find something much like <i>vers libre</i> in <a href="/wiki/John_Dryden" title="John Dryden">Dryden</a>'s <i>Threnodia Augustalis</i>; a great deal of <a href="/wiki/John_Milton" title="John Milton">Milton</a>'s <i><a href="/wiki/Samson_Agonistes" title="Samson Agonistes">Samson Agonistes</a></i>, and the oldest in <a href="/wiki/Geoffrey_Chaucer" title="Geoffrey Chaucer">Chaucer's</a> <i><a href="/wiki/The_House_of_Fame" title="The House of Fame">House of Fame</a></i>."<sup id="cite_ref-46" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-46"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>46<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>In France, a few pieces in <a href="/wiki/Arthur_Rimbaud" title="Arthur Rimbaud">Arthur Rimbaud</a>'s <a href="/wiki/Prose_poem" class="mw-redirect" title="Prose poem">prose poem</a> collection <i><a href="/wiki/Illuminations_(poems)" class="mw-redirect" title="Illuminations (poems)">Illuminations</a></i> were arranged in manuscript in lines, rather than prose, and in the Netherlands, <a href="/wiki/Tachtiger" class="mw-redirect" title="Tachtiger">tachtiger</a> (i.e., a member of the 1880s generation of innovative poets) <a href="/wiki/Frederik_van_Eeden" title="Frederik van Eeden">Frederik van Eeden</a> employed the form at least once in his poem "Waterlelie" ("Water Lily").<sup id="cite_ref-47" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-47"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>47<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p><a href="/wiki/Goethe" class="mw-redirect" title="Goethe">Goethe</a> in some early poems, such as "<a href="/wiki/Prometheus_(Goethe)" title="Prometheus (Goethe)">Prometheus</a>" and also <a href="/wiki/H%C3%B6lderlin" class="mw-redirect" title="Hölderlin">Hölderlin</a> used free verse occasionally, due in part to a misinterpretation of the meter used in <a href="/wiki/Pindar" title="Pindar">Pindar</a>'s poetry. Hölderlin also continued to write unmetered poems after discovering this error.<sup id="cite_ref-48" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-48"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>48<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>The German poet <a href="/wiki/Heinrich_Heine" title="Heinrich Heine">Heinrich Heine</a> made an important contribution to the development of free verse with 22 poems, written in two-poem cycles, called <i>Die Nordsee</i> (<i>The North Sea</i>) (written 1825–1826).<sup id="cite_ref-49" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-49"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>49<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> These were first published in <i>Buch der Lieder</i> (<i>Book of Songs</i>) in 1827. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="See_also">See also</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Free_verse&action=edit&section=6" title="Edit section: See also"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Abbaye_de_Cr%C3%A9teil" title="Abbaye de Créteil">Abbaye de Créteil</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Blank_verse" title="Blank verse">Blank verse</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Cadence_(poetry)" title="Cadence (poetry)">Cadence</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Confessional_poetry" title="Confessional poetry">Confessional poetry</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Imagism" title="Imagism">Imagism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Modernist_poetry" title="Modernist poetry">Modernist poetry</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/New_Formalism" title="New Formalism">New Formalism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Poetry_analysis" title="Poetry analysis">Poetry analysis</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Prose_poetry" title="Prose poetry">Prose poetry</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Symbolism_(arts)" class="mw-redirect" title="Symbolism (arts)">Symbolism</a></li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Free_verse&action=edit&section=7" title="Edit section: References"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1239543626">.mw-parser-output .reflist{margin-bottom:0.5em;list-style-type:decimal}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .reflist{font-size:90%}}.mw-parser-output .reflist .references{font-size:100%;margin-bottom:0;list-style-type:inherit}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-2{column-width:30em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-3{column-width:25em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns{margin-top:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns ol{margin-top:0}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns li{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-alpha{list-style-type:upper-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-roman{list-style-type:upper-roman}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-alpha{list-style-type:lower-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-greek{list-style-type:lower-greek}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-roman{list-style-type:lower-roman}</style><div class="reflist"> <div class="mw-references-wrap mw-references-columns"><ol class="references"> <li id="cite_note-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-1">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1238218222">.mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit;word-wrap:break-word}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"\"""\"""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation:target{background-color:rgba(0,127,255,0.133)}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free.id-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited.id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration.id-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription.id-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg")right 0.1em center/12px no-repeat}body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background-size:contain;padding:0 1em 0 0}.mw-parser-output .cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:none;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#085;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}</style><cite id="CITEREFAbbsRichardson1990" class="citation book cs1">Abbs, Peter; Richardson, John (15 November 1990). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=y0p4QgAACAAJ"><i>The Forms of Poetry: A practical study guide for English</i></a> (15th ed.). <a href="/wiki/Cambridge_University_Press" title="Cambridge University Press">Cambridge University Press</a>. p. 137. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-521-37160-5" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-521-37160-5"><bdi>978-0-521-37160-5</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=The+Forms+of+Poetry%3A+A+practical+study+guide+for+English&rft.pages=137&rft.edition=15th&rft.pub=Cambridge+University+Press&rft.date=1990-11-15&rft.isbn=978-0-521-37160-5&rft.aulast=Abbs&rft.aufirst=Peter&rft.au=Richardson%2C+John&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fbooks.google.com%2Fbooks%3Fid%3Dy0p4QgAACAAJ&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AFree+verse" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-deFord-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-deFord_2-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-deFord_2-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-deFord_2-2"><sup><i><b>c</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFDeFordHarriss1971" class="citation book cs1">DeFord, Sara; Harriss, Clarinda (1971). <i>Forms of verse: British and American</i>. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts. pp. 292–293. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0390260002" title="Special:BookSources/0390260002"><bdi>0390260002</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Forms+of+verse%3A+British+and+American&rft.place=New+York&rft.pages=292-293&rft.pub=Appleton-Century-Crofts&rft.date=1971&rft.isbn=0390260002&rft.aulast=DeFord&rft.aufirst=Sara&rft.au=Harriss%2C+Clarinda&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AFree+verse" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-3">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFKirby-Smith1996" class="citation book cs1">Kirby-Smith, H. T. (1996). <i>The origins of free verse</i>. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. p. 43. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0472106988" title="Special:BookSources/0472106988"><bdi>0472106988</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=The+origins+of+free+verse&rft.place=Ann+Arbor&rft.pages=43&rft.pub=University+of+Michigan+Press&rft.date=1996&rft.isbn=0472106988&rft.aulast=Kirby-Smith&rft.aufirst=H.+T.&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AFree+verse" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-4">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFKirby-Smith1996" class="citation book cs1">Kirby-Smith, Henry Tompkins (1996). <i>The origins of free verse</i>. Ann Arbor (Mich.): the University of Michigan press. p. 10. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0472106988" title="Special:BookSources/0472106988"><bdi>0472106988</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=The+origins+of+free+verse&rft.place=Ann+Arbor+%28Mich.%29&rft.pages=10&rft.pub=the+University+of+Michigan+press&rft.date=1996&rft.isbn=0472106988&rft.aulast=Kirby-Smith&rft.aufirst=Henry+Tompkins&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AFree+verse" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-5"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-5">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Pondrom, Cryrena <i>The Road from Paris, French Influence on English Poetry</i> 1900-1920 Cambridge University Press 1974 <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-521-13119-3" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-521-13119-3">978-0-521-13119-3</a></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-6"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-6">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">F. 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Flint, <i>The History of Imagism</i> Essay in The Egoist May 1915</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-7"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-7">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Jones Peter (editor) Introduction to <i>Imagist Poetry</i> Penguin Books <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-14-042147-5" title="Special:BookSources/0-14-042147-5">0-14-042147-5</a></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-8"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-8">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Pratt William <i>Introduction to The Imagist Poem, modern poetry in miniature</i> Uno Press 1963 edition <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-9728143-8-6" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-9728143-8-6">978-0-9728143-8-6</a></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-9"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-9">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Pratt William Preface to <i>The Imagist Poem, modern poetry in miniature</i> Uno Press 1963 edition <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-9728143-8-6" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-9728143-8-6">978-0-9728143-8-6</a></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-10"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-10">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Eliot T. S. Address <i>To Criticize the Critic</i> to Washington University June 1953, Faber & Faber 1965</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-11"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-11">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Untermeyer, Louis, Preface to <i>Modern American Poetry</i> Harcourt Brace& Co New York 1950</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-allen-12"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-allen_12-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-allen_12-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-allen_12-2"><sup><i><b>c</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFAllen1948" class="citation journal cs1">Allen, Charles (1948). "Cadenced Free Verse". <i>College English</i>. <b>9</b> (4): 195–199. <a href="/wiki/Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.2307%2F371561">10.2307/371561</a>. <a href="/wiki/JSTOR_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="JSTOR (identifier)">JSTOR</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/371561">371561</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.jtitle=College+English&rft.atitle=Cadenced+Free+Verse&rft.volume=9&rft.issue=4&rft.pages=195-199&rft.date=1948&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.2307%2F371561&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org%2Fstable%2F371561%23id-name%3DJSTOR&rft.aulast=Allen&rft.aufirst=Charles&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AFree+verse" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-13"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-13">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Donald Hall, in the essay 'Goatfoot, Milktongue, Twinbird' in the book of 0-472-40000-2.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-14"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-14">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Eliot quote from the essay, "The Music of Poetry" Jackson (1 January 1942) ASIN B0032Q49RO</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-15"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-15">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Introductory Note by Kenneth Allott (ed.) <i>The Penguin Book of Contemporary Verse</i>, <a href="/wiki/Penguin_Books" title="Penguin Books">Penguin Books</a>, Harmondsworth, England 1950</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-16"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-16">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Lowes, Livingston John, <i>Nation</i> Feb 1916</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-17"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-17">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i> The Robert Frost Encyclopedia</i>. Nancy Lewis Tuten, John Zubizarreta. Greenwood Press (2001). Page 318. <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780313294648" title="Special:BookSources/9780313294648">9780313294648</a></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-18"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-18">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Lingeman, Richard. "A Poet for the People: <i>Carl Sandberg: A Biography</i>". <i>Los Angeles Times</i>. 14 July 1991.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-19"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-19">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Free Verse, <i>Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics</i>, 2nd Ed, 1975</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-20"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-20">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008999461&view=1up&seq=11">[1]</a> Winters, Yvor. <i>Primitivism and Decadence: A Study of American Experimental Poetry</i>. Arrow Editions, New York, 1937. p. 7</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-21"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-21">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Jan Morris (1984), <i>The Matter of Wales: Epic Views of a Small Country</i>, <a href="/wiki/Oxford_University_Press" title="Oxford University Press">Oxford University Press</a>. Page 152.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-22"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-22">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Hover, Richard <i>Poet in Town</i> Interview with Boston Record Sept 1898</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-autogenerated1914-23"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-autogenerated1914_23-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-autogenerated1914_23-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text">Scott, Clive, Vers libre: the emergence of free verse in France, 1886-1914 Clarendon Press, Oxford <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-19-815159-3" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-19-815159-3">978-0-19-815159-3</a></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-24"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-24">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Hulme, T. E. Lecture on <i>Modern Poetry</i>, Kensington Town Hall 1914</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-25"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-25">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Pratt, William,<i> Introduction to The Influence of French Symbolism on Modern American Poetry</i> by René Taupin, AMS Press Inc, New York 1985 <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-404-61579-1" title="Special:BookSources/0-404-61579-1">0-404-61579-1</a></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-26"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-26">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">I A Richards & C.K.Ogden <i>The Foundations of Aesthetics</i>, Lear Publisher, New York 1925</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-27"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-27">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Maritain Jaques, <i>The Situation of Poetry Now</i>, Philosophical Library, New York, 1955</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-28"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-28">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Flint, F. S., <i>Contemporary French Poetry</i>, The Poetry Review Aug 1912</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-29"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-29">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">de Souza, Robert, <i>Du Rythme en Francais</i>, Welter, Paris 1912</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-autogenerated1986-30"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-autogenerated1986_30-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-autogenerated1986_30-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text">Taupin, René, <i>The Influence of French Symbolism on Modern American Poetry</i> (1986),(trans William Pratt) AMS Studies in Modern Literature, <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-404-61579-1" title="Special:BookSources/0-404-61579-1">0-404-61579-1</a></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-31"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-31">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Pondrom, Cryrena The Road from Paris, French Influence on English Poetry 1900-1920 Cambridge University Press 1974 <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-521-13119-3" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-521-13119-3">978-0-521-13119-3</a></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-32"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-32">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Read, Herbert <i>The Tenth Muse</i> New York 1958</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-33"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-33">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Remy de Gourmand, <i>Le Probleme du Style</i>, Paris 1900</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-34"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-34">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Lowes, John Livingston Conventions and Revolt in Poetry Houghton Mifflin, Boston 1919</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-35"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-35">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Lowell, Amy, Preface, Sword Blades, and Poppy Seed; North American Review for January 1917</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-36"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-36">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Lowes, John Livingston <i>Conventions and Revolt in Poetry</i> Houghton Mifflin, Boston 1919</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-37"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-37">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">de Souza Robert, <i>Du Rythme en Francais</i>, Welter, Paris 1912</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-38"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-38">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Kahn, Gustave, <i>Le Vers libre</i>, Paris, 1923 ASIN: B008XZTTY2</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-39"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-39">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Hulme, T. E., <i>Lecture on Modern Poetry</i>, Kensington Town Hall 1914</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-40"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-40">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Boulton, Marjories, <i>Anatomy of Poetry</i>, Routledge&Kegan, London 1953</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-41"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-41">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Pratt, William. The Imagist Poem, Modern Poetry in Miniature (Story Line Press, 1963, expanded 2001). <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/1-58654-009-2" title="Special:BookSources/1-58654-009-2">1-58654-009-2</a>.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-42"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-42">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Read, Herbert Ezra Pound, <i>The Tenth Muse</i>. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1957</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-43"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-43">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Patterson, William Morrison, <i>Rhythm of Prose</i> (Preface 2nd edition) <a href="/wiki/Columbia_University_Press" title="Columbia University Press">Columbia University Press</a>, 1916. <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="https://archive.org/stream/rhythmofproseexp00pattiala/rhythmofproseexp00pattiala_djvu.txt">[2]</a></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-44"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-44">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Taupin, Rene. <i>The Influence of French Symbolism on Modern American Poetry</i> (1986), (translated by William Pratt), Ams Studies in Modern Literature, <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-404-61579-1" title="Special:BookSources/0-404-61579-1">0-404-61579-1</a></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-Kirby-Smith1998-45"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-Kirby-Smith1998_45-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFH._T._Kirby-Smith1998" class="citation book cs1">H. T. Kirby-Smith (1998). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=6N4IZIjmiCkC&pg=PA44"><i>The Origins of Free Verse</i></a>. University of Michigan Press. p. 44. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-472-08565-4" title="Special:BookSources/0-472-08565-4"><bdi>0-472-08565-4</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=The+Origins+of+Free+Verse&rft.pages=44&rft.pub=University+of+Michigan+Press&rft.date=1998&rft.isbn=0-472-08565-4&rft.au=H.+T.+Kirby-Smith&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fbooks.google.com%2Fbooks%3Fid%3D6N4IZIjmiCkC%26pg%3DPA44&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AFree+verse" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-46"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-46">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Preface to <i>Some Imagist Poets</i>, Constable, 1916</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-47"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-47">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://4umi.com/vaneeden/waterlelie.htm">"De waterlelie < Frederik van Eeden"</a>. <i>4umi.com</i>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=4umi.com&rft.atitle=De+waterlelie+%3C+Frederik+van+Eeden&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2F4umi.com%2Fvaneeden%2Fwaterlelie.htm&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AFree+verse" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-48"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-48">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=ELuZzgnE81MC&pg=PR15">Michael Hamburger: <i>Foreword</i></a> in Robert Marcellus Browning (ed.): <i>German poetry from 1750 to 1900</i> (<i>The German Library</i>, vol. 39), New York: The Continuum Publishing Company, 1984, p. XV, <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-8264-0282-8" title="Special:BookSources/0-8264-0282-8">0-8264-0282-8</a></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-49"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-49">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFHeine1995" class="citation book cs1">Heine, Heinrich (22 November 1995). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=wcnooASgpFIC&q=%22free+verse%22+heine+north+sea&pg=PR17"><i>Songs of Love and Grief: A Bilingual Anthology in the Verse Forms of the ... – Heinrich Heine – Google Books</i></a>. Northwestern University Press. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780810113244" title="Special:BookSources/9780810113244"><bdi>9780810113244</bdi></a><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">23 April</span> 2013</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Songs+of+Love+and+Grief%3A+A+Bilingual+Anthology+in+the+Verse+Forms+of+the+...+%E2%80%93+Heinrich+Heine+%E2%80%93+Google+Books&rft.pub=Northwestern+University+Press&rft.date=1995-11-22&rft.isbn=9780810113244&rft.aulast=Heine&rft.aufirst=Heinrich&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fbooks.google.com%2Fbooks%3Fid%3DwcnooASgpFIC%26q%3D%2522free%2Bverse%2522%2Bheine%2Bnorth%2Bsea%26pg%3DPR17&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AFree+verse" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> </ol></div></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Further_reading">Further reading</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Free_verse&action=edit&section=8" title="Edit section: Further reading"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li><a href="/w/index.php?title=Charles_O._Hartman&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Charles O. Hartman (page does not exist)">Charles O. Hartman</a>, <i>Free Verse: An Essay on <a href="/wiki/Prosody_(poetry)" class="mw-redirect" title="Prosody (poetry)">Prosody</a>,</i> Northwestern University Press, 1980. <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-8101-1316-3" title="Special:BookSources/0-8101-1316-3">0-8101-1316-3</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Philip_Hobsbaum" title="Philip Hobsbaum">Philip Hobsbaum</a>, <i><a href="/wiki/Meter_(poetry)" class="mw-redirect" title="Meter (poetry)">Metre</a>, Rhythm and Verse Form,</i> <a href="/wiki/Routledge" title="Routledge">Routledge</a>, 1996.</li> <li><a href="/wiki/H._T._Kirby-Smith" title="H. T. Kirby-Smith">H. T. Kirby-Smith</a>, <i>The Origins of Free Verse,</i> <a href="/wiki/University_of_Michigan" title="University of Michigan">University of Michigan</a>, 1996. <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-472-08565-4" title="Special:BookSources/0-472-08565-4">0-472-08565-4</a>.</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Timothy_Steele" title="Timothy Steele">Timothy Steele</a>, <i>Missing Measures: Modern Poetry and the Revolt Against Meter</i>, University of Arkansas Press, 1990.</li> <li>G. Burns Cooper, <i><a href="/wiki/Mysterious_Music:_Rhythm_and_Free_Verse" class="mw-redirect" title="Mysterious Music: Rhythm and Free Verse">Mysterious Music: Rhythm and Free Verse</a>,</i> <a href="/wiki/Stanford_University_Press" title="Stanford University Press">Stanford University Press</a>, 1998.</li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="On_vers_libre">On vers libre</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Free_verse&action=edit&section=9" title="Edit section: On vers libre"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li>Taupin, René <i>The Influence of French Symbolism on Modern American Poetry</i> (1986),(trans William Pratt) Ams Studies in Modern Literature, <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-404-61579-1" title="Special:BookSources/0-404-61579-1">0-404-61579-1</a></li> <li>Pondrom, Cryrena <i>The Road from Paris, French Influence on English Poetry 1900-1920</i> Cambridge University Press 1974 <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-521-13119-3" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-521-13119-3">978-0-521-13119-3</a></li> <li>Scott, Clive, <i>Vers libre : the emergence of free verse in France</i>, 1886-1914 Clarendon Press, Oxford <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-19-815159-3" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-19-815159-3">978-0-19-815159-3</a></li> <li>Kahn, Gustave, <i>Le Vers libre</i>, Paris, 1923 ASIN: B008XZTTY2</li> <li>Pound, Ezra, <i>The Approach to Paris</i> The New Age Sep 1913</li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="External_links">External links</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Free_verse&action=edit&section=10" title="Edit section: External links"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpN8YYdTIrw">Free verse read aloud by William Carlos Williams</a></li> <li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEuEkW-1oPk">Marianne Moore reads aloud an example of her free verse</a></li> <li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V93WfVLqO4">Wallace Stevens reads aloud one of his free verse poems</a></li> <li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://world.std.com/~raparker/exploring/tseliot/works/essays/reflections_on_vers_libre.html">Reflections on <i>Vers Libre</i> – Essay by T. S. Eliot, 1916</a></li> <li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCzbdORy-MM"><i>Correspondances</i> by Charles Baudelaire</a>, an example of vers libre</li></ul> <div class="navbox-styles"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1129693374">.mw-parser-output .hlist dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist ol,.mw-parser-output .hlist ul{margin:0;padding:0}.mw-parser-output .hlist dd,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt,.mw-parser-output .hlist li{margin:0;display:inline}.mw-parser-output .hlist.inline,.mw-parser-output .hlist.inline dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist.inline ol,.mw-parser-output .hlist.inline ul,.mw-parser-output .hlist dl dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist dl ol,.mw-parser-output .hlist dl ul,.mw-parser-output .hlist ol dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist ol ol,.mw-parser-output .hlist ol ul,.mw-parser-output .hlist ul dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist ul ol,.mw-parser-output .hlist ul ul{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .hlist .mw-empty-li{display:none}.mw-parser-output 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