Free verse, or vers libre, is a style that departs from the strict, inherited forms of poetry. It emerged as a means for poets to break the confines of traditional verse, favoring expression rooted in natural speech and thought. This approach allows the content and imagery to dictate the structure, rather than forcing language into predetermined molds.
Defining Free Verse
Free verse is formally defined as poetry that does not adhere to a consistent metrical pattern or a fixed rhyme scheme. Unlike forms such as the sonnet, which rely on predictable structures like iambic pentameter, free verse liberates the line from a specific number of syllables or a steady beat.
A free verse poem may occasionally include rhyme or rhythmic passages, but these are used spontaneously and are never sustained into a regular pattern. By shedding these traditional constraints, the poet gains the freedom to prioritize the natural flow of language and the visual impact of the poem on the page.
How Free Verse Achieves Rhythm
Since traditional meter is absent, free verse poets rely on deliberate structural choices to create an internal rhythm and cadence. A primary tool is the strategic use of the line break, which controls the reader’s pace and creates moments of emphasis. Manipulating where a line ends directs the eye and ear, engineering pauses that substitute for metrical feet.
One technique is enjambment, where a sentence or phrase runs over from one line to the next without terminal punctuation. This pushes the reader forward, building momentum and creating tension between the line’s visual shape and the grammatical unit. Conversely, end-stopping—where the line ends with punctuation—forces a complete pause, controlling the speed and allowing an image to resonate before the next line begins.
The musicality of free verse also stems from the rhythm of natural speech and the use of parallel structure. Poets often employ cadence, allowing the inherent stresses and pauses of conversational language to determine the flow. Repetition of words, phrases, or grammatical constructions—known as anaphora—replaces the sonic function of a consistent rhyme scheme, creating a powerful, internal beat.
Analyzing Specific Examples
One example of free verse is Langston Hughes’s poem, “Mother to Son,” which uses the natural speech patterns of its speaker to establish rhythm. The poem opens with the lines: “Well, son, I’ll tell you: / Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.” The lack of a regular meter is immediately apparent, reflecting the conversational tone of the mother’s address.
Hughes uses repetition and rhetorical structure to create emphasis, repeating the image of the “crystal stair” and the tacks, splinters, and torn-up boards of her difficult life journey. The line breaks mirror the mother’s pauses for emphasis. This technique ensures the poem’s rhythm is organic, driven by the speaker’s emotional message rather than a fixed pattern.
William Carlos Williams’s “The Red Wheelbarrow” provides an example of spare, image-focused free verse, demonstrating how line breaks isolate words for maximum visual impact. The poem reads: “so much depends / upon / a red wheel / barrow / glazed with rain / water / beside the white / chickens.” The breaks intentionally fracture compound words like “wheelbarrow” and “rainwater,” forcing a brief pause on each half.
This arrangement compels the reader to focus on the concrete image, elevating the mundane wheelbarrow to a subject of importance. The poem contains no rhyme and no discernible metrical foot, achieving structural coherence purely through the deliberate isolation and arrangement of its sixteen words across eight lines.