Poetic Forms: Prose and Free Verse

Prose and free verse are very similar in nature and are often labeled together. I frequently use "prose" to describe both, which has become common literary practice. Neither uses meter or rhyme, but classic prose is less constructed and tends more towards common speech. In fact, prose may even be written in paragraph form and is regularly adopted for discussion of facts or events.

Though free verse, also called open verse, does not normally utilize meter, a "flow" is desirable, so that readers don't find themselves tripping over phrases, and its lines are often fairly equal in length. Free verse may also utilize stanzas, which may be arranged in triplets (three-line stanzas) or quatrains (four-line stanzas), for example, but, by definition, is not tied to any repeating pattern. Stanzas can make easier the reading a lengthy poem, rather than a long paragraph or unbroken list of lines. However, any stanza breaks are up to the author and not constrained by order.

Free verse is easily the most popular form in poetry today, as poets are not saddled with the constraints of structure. For this reason it is the simplest to write, but can also be the most difficult to master. Novice poets use prose and free verse to candidly pour out their feelings, which does not usually make for good reading. An accomplished poet, however, may use free verse to steer the reader to a point or to be poignant.

Examples:

Shades (prose)

As the sun's rays die away in the heavens, twilight emerges from the earth. Twilight: a great army of the night, with thousands of invisible columns and billions of soldiers. A mighty army that from time immemorial has contended with light, broken in rout with every dawn, conquered with every nightfall, held sway from sunset to sunrise, and in the daytime, scattered, has taken refuge in places of concealment and has waited.

--Boleslaw Prus (1847-1912)

A Splendid Alternative (Free verse)

So rarely does a small town become
a beacon, but her initiatives have potential,
a blueprint that may shine the light
of technology on the rest of the country.

Going green wasn't their first choice,
but as a town lay in ruins, they were bold.
What was chosen was more than survival-
it was a splendid alternative.

Greensburg didn't just rebuild.
It set rules of construction that made
itself an example, a guide for the future,
a Platinum paragon.

Choices made, alternatives were clear;
history has found this quaint Kansas town.