literature written in verse

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Top 10 verse novels

From Homer’s classical epic to Kae Tempest’s mythic struggles in modern London, these books show that poetry can be more immediate than prose

Verse novels have been with us for millennia, yet when you publish one, many are surprised by your breach of the prose-novel tradition and also somewhat fearful of trying something new.

It is curious how we love poems as children, and as adults drag them out for weddings and funerals – and yet in our day-to-day lives feel poetry doesn’t belong to us. When I speak at events the overwhelming refrain from my audiences is that poetry is difficult and makes readers feel ignorant. But the verse novel, well that’s something slightly different. As a poet I write with melody in mind, but as a novelist, story is king, so if showing off with language will muddy my reader’s ability to engage with the characters, I scratch it out and try again, and most verse novelists I read do the same.

If you haven’t read verse before here are some of my very favourites, and in the same vein as my new book Here Is the Beehive , most of my picks are short novels that can be read in a couple of sittings. Verse doesn’t require the same-sized canvas as prose; sparsity is what lends these novels their magic, the white spaces on the page revealing almost half of what the chosen words express and sometimes that space says even more.

1. Charlotte by David Foenkinos Translated from the French by Sam Taylor, Charlotte is an international bestseller. Though the verse is not particularly complex or gruelling, its simple and unsentimental tone makes it all the more heartbreaking. A story about loss and resilience, set in Nazi Germany, Charlotte is an inspiring novel made all the more powerful by being based on a true story about the life of a relatively unknown artist. The ending comes as no surprise, but I still found myself devastated by it.

2. The Long Take by Robin Robertson Shortlisted for the Man Booker prize in 2018, this is a novel I read in one gulp, realising as I did that the verse form I had long used to write for children absolutely could work for adults. I then listened to the audiobook, and hearing the melody of the poet’s voice at work (though read by an actor) left me in awe. It is an overwhelming story, using dialogue to stunning effect, about Walker, a war veteran moving between New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, suffering from PTSD and unable to return to his home, and his lost love, in Nova Scotia. I refer to it when I want to remember how verse novels should be written and how much harder I need to be working.

3. The Iliad by Homer, translated by Robert Fagles I have had this translation on my bookshelf for years, and I suppose I thought that if it remained there, a couple of Post-it notes in its pages, I could pretend to myself and others that I had read it in its entirety. But I had not, and am ashamed to admit I did not finally succumb until I was overwhelmed by the The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker . The story opens near the end of the 10-year war between the Greeks and Trojans, men and Gods battling for power, the legend of Achilles at its core. And this translation is entirely modern, with helpful footnotes throughout, so you won’t need a PhD to understand it. May take longer than a couple of sittings, however!

4. Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse I was a middle-school teacher in New Jersey when a colleague handed me a copy of Hesse’s Newbery medal-winning novel and suggested I teach it to the kids. A coming-of-age story set during the Oklahoma dust bowl of the 1930s, this centres on 14-year-old Billie Jo and her navigation of grief. This I was on board with, but when I saw the layout I practically spat out my bagel. I had been a teacher for years and knew one thing: teenagers would not endure an entire novel made up of poems. Teenagers hated poetry. Ah, how wrong I was – the students loved it. And less than six months later I began my own project in verse, which later turned into my debut novel.

5. The Marlowe Papers by Ros Barber The most incredible thing about Barber’s phenomenal novel, which supposes Christopher Marlowe did not die in a brawl but lived and wrote under the name William Shakespeare, is that it is written entirely in iambic pentameter. It’s original, clever and gripping – I don’t know how she pulled it off.

6. Love That Dog by Sharon Creech This slip of a thing will be devoured by your children, and then by you, in mere minutes. It is the story of a boy who cautiously begins to engage with poetry, and his own feelings, through his homework assignments. If you aren’t sure poetry speaks to you any longer, let Creech heal you by reminding you that it is everywhere and can be accessed by anyone. A fabulous, fun novel you’ll read again and again.

7. Booked by Kwame Alexander I shudder ever so slightly when a new YA verse novel is presented to me, fearing it will be nothing more than cut-up prose. Kwame Alexander, however, is a true master of the form, using sophisticated poetic devices throughout each of his novels to propel story and engage even the most reluctant teen reader. If I’m forced to choose a favourite from his oeuvre it’ll have to be this story about a football-obsessed boy who’s troubled by his parents’ separation. Alexander is already a superstar stateside, and on his way to snapping up the teen verse market here, too.

8. Brand New Ancients by Ka e Tempest I’ve seen Tempest perform twice and both times came away altered and gibbering slightly. They communicated on some ethereal level that defies explanation as the work is accessible, relatable and without pretence. This is a story about violence and love, which confronts the reader with what it means to be human in all its agonising complexity. If you can, listen to the audiobook, too.

9. Citizen by Claudia Rankine This book pushes form to create a kind of documentary novel about injustice in the US. As a white reader I felt exposed, and rightly so. As a poet, I felt jealous; the text’s refusal to be defined and the way it forces the reader to constantly adjust to its shifting form makes this a masterfully brave and important piece of literature.

10. The Golden Gate by Vikram Seth This list would not be complete without Seth’s prize-winning first novel. It was inspired by the poetic structure of Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin and is written in the iambic tetrameter he used. Like The Marlowe Papers, this is a triumph simply for managing to sustain its form throughout (whereas most of the other verse novels I have included are written in free verse). Set in the 1980s in Silicon Valley, the story opens with the successful but lonely John Brown placing a lonely hearts advertisement. The novel trots along at quite a pace, a plethora of characters coming into and out of the narrative, with themes from sexuality to war being explored. This is a chunkier read than the others but certainly worth the effort.

Here Is the Beehive by Sarah Crossan is published by Bloomsbury. To order a copy, go to guardianbookshop.com .

• Vikram Seth
• Robin Robertson
• Kae Tempest

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Definition of Verse

The literary device verse denotes a single line of poetry. The term can also be used to refer to a stanza or other parts of poetry.

Generally, the device is stated to encompass three possible meanings, namely a line of metrical writing, a stanza, or a piece written in meter . It is important to note here that the term “verse” is often incorrectly used for referring to “poetry” in order to differentiate it from prose .

Types of Verse

There are generally two types of verse, namely free verse and blank verse .

A free verse poem has no set meter; that is to say there is no rhyming scheme present, and the poem doesn’t follow a set pattern. For some poets this characteristic serves as a handy tool for the purpose of camouflaging their fluctuation of thoughts, whereas others think that it affects the quality of work being presented.

Example #1 Free Verse

After the Sea-Ship (By Walt Whitman )

“After the Sea-Ship—after the whistling winds; After the white-gray sails, taut to their spars and ropes, Below, a myriad, myriad waves, hastening, lifting up their necks, Tending in ceaseless flow toward the track of the ship: Waves of the ocean, bubbling and gurgling, blithely prying, Waves, undulating waves—liquid, uneven, emulous waves, Toward that whirling current, laughing and buoyant, with curves, Where the great Vessel, sailing and tacking, displaced the surface…”

As can be seen from the stanza quoted above, there is an absence of rhyming effect and structure in each verse.

Example #2 Free Verse

Fog (By Carl Sandburg)

“The fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on.”

Here, it can be observed that there is no form or rhyme scheme present in the verse.

• Blank Verse

There is no rhyming effect present in a blank verse poem. However, it has an iambic pentameter . It is usually employed for presenting passionate events, and to create an impact on the reader. Shakespeare was an ardent user of blank verse.

Example #1 Blank Verse

Furball Friend (Author Unknown)

“Sweet pet by day, hunter by night . She sleeps, she eats, she plays. My feet, caught in white paws. She’s up the fence, watching her prey – a bird. Poor thing, better run quick, ’cause watch, she’ll pounce! She’ll sweetly beg for fuss, but don’t be fooled. ‘Cause one minute she’ll purr and smile, then snap! She’ll spit and hiss – and oh – surprise! A mouse. He’s dead. A gift. Retracts her claws. Miaow! Figure of eight between my legs, looks up at me and purrs. The sound pulls my heartstrings. Her big blue eyes like dinner plates – so cute. Cunning she is, she knows I can’t resist. Curling up tight, we sleep entwined as one. Despite her quirks, I would not change a claw of her. Cheeky Sammy: my snow -white queen.”

The poem quoted above depicts the use of blank verse throughout. Here, it is important to note that there is no rhyming scheme present. Also, it can be seen that there is a presence of iambic pentameter throughout the verses.

Short Examples of Verse

• The difference between ambience and silence , When nature speaks, you are silent. (Blank Verse)
• Words limit the silence Upsetting the peace Of infinite tranquility… (Blank Verse)
• Flower in a faraway valley, Wind carries it away as butterflies move around. (Blank Verse)
• A ship sailor from the West lands on the land between the mountains and the seas. (Blank Verse)
• Cold cold, Winter sticks to the trees and the seas. (Free Verse)
• Just off the road to city, Twilight bounds swiftly froth on the plants. (Free Verse)
• What thought I’d think tonight, for I walk down the street Under thick trees with a self-conscious mind looking at full moon. (Free Verse)
• The sea is silent to-day, The tides are high, the moon sparks Upon the curved stairs; on the coast The light shines and goes; the cliffs stand, Gleaming and huge, out on a tranquil shore. (Free Verse)
• A land filled with ice Covered by the arches of sky, Hurls into eternity. (Free Verse)
• Many stars tonight And their memory. Yet how much room is there for quiet clouds? (Free Verse)
• Forgetfulness is a melody That frees itself from measure and beat, wanders. (Free Verse)
• Above the ruffles of surf The sun sparkles on the waves, And the waves carry thunder on the shore. (Free Verse)
• Standing out vibrantly in the garden A dream flower blossoms. (Free Verse)
• Beneath the earthly and cosmos sky, Floral butterfly ascends towards showers. (Free Verse)
• I entered the forest for a walk, I cross by many trees with overhead shades With small beam of light straining through them. (Free verse)

Examples of Verse in Literature

Example #1: fairies and fusiliers (by robert graves).

“I now delight In spite Of the might And the right Of classic tradition, In writing And reciting Straight ahead, Without let or omission… Because, I’ve said, My rhymes no longer shall stand arrayed No! No! My rhymes must go Twinkling, frosty, Will-o’-the-wisp-like, misty…”

This is an excellent example of a free verse poem, as it’s free from artificial expression of poetry. Without any poetic restraints, it gives a natural flow of reading experience.

Example #2: Feelings, Now (By Katherine Foreman)

“Some kind of attraction that is neither Animal , vegetable, nor mineral, a power not Solar, fusion, or magnetic… And find myself sitting there.”

This is another instance of free verse poetry that does not follow any rules, nor any rhyme scheme. However, it still gives an artistic and creative expression.

Example #3: Thanatopsis (By William Cullen Bryant)

“To him who in the love of Nature holds A various language; for his gayer hours She has a voice of gladness, and a smile…”

The above mentioned poem presents an example of blank verse that adds cadence and a subtle rhythm , mimicking the pattern of the language that is audible in nature.

Example #4: Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art (By John Keats)

“ Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art — Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night And watching, with eternal lids apart, Like nature’s patient, sleepless Eremite,…”

This is an example of a rhymed verse poem that has used an ABAB rhyme scheme, which means the first and third, and the second and fourth lines rhyme with one another.

Example #5 Daffodils (By William Wordsworth)

“ I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o’er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.”

The above quoted stanza from William Wordsworth’s poem Daffodils presents to the reader various examples of verse. It can be noted here that the use of the tool of verse adds a scenic element to the structure of poetry.

Function of Verse

The use of verse in a piece of writing has a pleasing effect on the reader’s mind. It is usually employed in poetry writing. The poets make use of the tool of verse in order to provide their poetry with a desired structure. It serves as an avenue through which writers project their ideas in the form of a composition having rhyme, rhythm, and deeper meanings. The device provides the writer with a framework for poetry writing.

Related posts:

• 10 Best Blank Verse Poems
• 15 Best Shakespeare’s Blank Verse
• Sonnet 17:  Who Will Believe My Verse in Time to Come
• 10 Famous Free-Verse Poems
• 10 Best Free-Verse Poem Examples For Kids
• 15 Famous Short Free-Verse Poems

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10 Essential Verse Forms Everyone Should Know

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Learning the different verse forms that poets have used for centuries might seem like a daunting task, but in this article we’ve picked ten of the most popular and enduring verse forms, and offer a short introduction to each of them. So, if you’ve always wanted to know more about different verse forms, and would like to be able to tell a sonnet from a ballad, look no further.

Let’s start with one of the most widely used and enduring verse forms in all of literature. Originating in Italy in the thirteenth century (it was actually a little-known Sicilian poet named Giacomo da Lentini, rather than the later and more famous Petrarch, who invented this form), the sonnet (almost) always takes 14 lines and comes in a variety of forms, though the two most famous are the English or Shakespearean sonnet (three quatrains of alternate rhymes, i.e. abab cdcd efef , followed by a concluding rhyming couplet, gg ) and the Italian or Petrarchan sonnet (an octave rhymed abbaabba and a sestet that can be rhymed a number of ways, though often cdcdcd ).

The beauty of the sonnet form is that it’s just long enough to explore/argue an issue or work through a mental or emotional conflict, but will never outstay its welcome. Some poets have innovated with the sonnet form in surprising way: see our longer introduction to the sonnet here. Here is a fine example of the sonnet form by its earliest English practitioner, Sir Thomas Wyatt:

Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind, But as for me,  hélas , I may no more. The vain travail hath wearied me so sore, I am of them that farthest cometh behind. Yet may I by no means my wearied mind Draw from the deer, but as she fleeth afore Fainting I follow. I leave off therefore, Since in a net I seek to hold the wind. Who list her hunt, I put him out of doubt, As well as I may spend his time in vain. And graven with diamonds in letters plain There is written, her fair neck round about: Noli me tangere , for Caesar’s I am, And wild for to hold, though I seem tame.

We all know about haiku: the Japanese verse form comprising three lines and a total of 17 syllables, i.e. 5 syllables in the first line, 7 in the second line, and 5 in the third? This actually only tells part of the story (there is a difference between our understanding of ‘syllables’ based on the original Japanese formula), and haiku, strictly, should be about nature – we explore the form in more detail here .

Strictly speaking, ballad metre is verse in quatrains comprising lines of alternating tetrameter (four feet) and tetrameter (three feet), rhymed abcb (rather than abab , for instance). A typical example is the opening stanza from the anonymous ballad ‘Sir Patrick Spens’:

The King sits in Dunferline toun, Drinkin the blude-reid wine ‘O whaur will A get a skeely skipper Tae sail this new ship o mine?’

Ballads usually tell a story, so they’re a form of narrative poem, but written in the abcb quatrains illustrated above. However, ballads were originally composed to be sung and danced to, with musical accompaniment: the word ‘ballad’ comes from the Latin ballare , meaning ‘to dance’.

4. Villanelle.

This very restrictive verse form presents a challenge to the poet, since it hinges on the repeated use of two refrains. As its name suggests, the villanelle is a French verse form, yet this French form took its name from an Italian one: the word derives from villanella, a form of Italian part-song which originated in Naples in the sixteenth century.

Yet English poetry, rather than French or Italian, has become the naturalised home of the villanelle. This intriguing verse form comprises 19 lines made up of five tercets (three-line stanzas) and a concluding quatrain.

As the Oxford English Dictionary summarises it, ‘The first and third lines of the first stanza are repeated alternately in the succeeding stanzas as a refrain, and form a final couplet in the quatrain.’

An example of how the villanelle works in practice can be seen in an early example in English, Oscar Wilde’s ‘Theocritus: A Villanelle’ from 1890:

O singer of Persephone! In the dim meadows desolate Dost thou remember Sicily?

Still through the ivy flits the bee Where Amaryllis lies in state; O Singer of Persephone!

Simaetha calls on Hecate And hears the wild dogs at the gate; Dost thou remember Sicily?

And so on. Although it remains a niche form, some fantastic poems have been written using the villanelle form in the twentieth century, including W. H. Auden’s ‘ If I Could Tell You ’, William Empson’s ‘ Missing Dates ’, and Dylan Thomas’s ‘Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night’ . We have a fuller history of the villanelle here .

5. Ottava Rima.

The term ottava rima is Italian, as is this verse form, comprising eight-line stanzas rhymed abababcc . Like the heroic couplet below, it was first used to write about grand, heroic things; but later, it was used, especially in English, for mock-heroic poems, most famously Byron’s long narrative poem Don Juan , where the rhymes were also often comically polysyllabic (as with ‘satire, he’ and ‘flattery/battery’ here):

I am no flatterer – you’ve supped full of flattery: They say you like it too – ’tis no great wonder: He whose whole life has been assault and battery, At last may get a little tired of thunder; And swallowing eulogy much more than satire, he May like being praised for every lucky blunder; Called ‘Saviour of the Nations’ – not yet saved, And Europe’s Liberator – still enslaved.

6. Sestina.

The sestina is great fun to write, though, as Stephen Fry acknowledges in The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within , hard to explain. But the gist is that you have six-line stanzas – six of them in all – followed by a concluding three-line stanza. The ‘rhymes’ at the ends of the lines are not rhymes at all; instead, you have six words – Fry calls them ‘hero’ words – which you repeat at the ends of lines, once each for each stanza, but at different points in the stanza.

We’ve gathered together some examples of the sestina form here which help to explain how the form works. Here is the opening stanza from one of the most famous sestinas in English, by Sir Philip Sidney:

Ye goatherd gods, that love the grassy mountains, Ye nymphs which haunt the springs in pleasant valleys, Ye satyrs joyed with free and quiet forests, Vouchsafe your silent ears to plaining music, Which to my woes gives still an early morning, And draws the dolor on till weary evening …

7. Rhyme Royal.

Used by Geoffrey Chaucer for his long narrative poem Troilus and Criseyde , rhyme royal is very similar to ottava rima, except it’s seven lines long rather than eight, and rhymed ababbcc . The verse form was later used by Tudor poets, such as Sir Thomas Wyatt, whose ‘ They Flee from Me ’ is a superlative example of what the form can do:

They flee from me that sometime did me seek With naked foot, stalking in my chamber. I have seen them gentle, tame, and meek, That now are wild and do not remember That sometime they put themself in danger To take bread at my hand; and now they range, Busily seeking with a continual change.

8. Heroic Couplet.

The ‘heroic couplet’ is the name given to rhyming couplets written in iambic pentameter . They’re called ‘heroic’ because they were used in translations of epic poetry into English – poems about heroes from classical mythology.

Heroic couplets thus suggest grandeur and ‘weightiness’, although the flipside of this is that they have sometimes been used to create the opposite effect: for instance, Alexander Pope, in his mock-heroic poem The Rape of the Lock , uses heroic couplets to summon the lofty world of gods and goddesses … in a poem about an upper-class woman having a lock of her hair cut off:

This Nymph, to the destruction of mankind, Nourish’d two Locks, which graceful hung behind In equal curls, and well conspir’d to deck With shining ringlets the smooth iv’ry neck. Love in these labyrinths his slaves detains, And mighty hearts are held in slender chains.

Heroic couplets were also popular in the eighteenth century – before the advent of Romanticism brought in a preference for blank verse (see below) – since they suggested order and neatness, which neoclassical or ‘Augustan’ poets like Pope, Samuel Johnson, and others wanted to bring to poetry. Johnson in particular wrote verse satires and didactic poems using heroic couplets.

9. Blank Verse.

Blank verse is unrhymed iambic pentameter, and is not to be confused with free verse (which is unrhymed but doesn’t have a regular metre). Of all the verse forms listed here, with the exception of free verse below, blank verse is the one that comes the closest to the natural rhythms of English speech, which is what helped to make it so useful to writers of verse dramas, such as Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, John Webster, and, later, T. S. Eliot.

Here’s a famous example from Shakespeare:

To be, or not to be, that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles And by opposing end them. To die—to sleep, No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to: ’tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep; To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there’s the rub: For in that sleep of death what dreams may come …

You’ll notice that blank verse has a rhythm (iambic pentameter goes ti-TUM ti-TUM ti-TUM ti-TUM ti-TUM), but no rhyme. We explore blank verse in more depth here .

10. Free Verse.

As mentioned above, free verse is different from blank verse: it’s unrhymed, but also has no regular metre – and doesn’t even need regular line lengths. This gives the poet far greater freedom, as this short 1908 poem from T. E. Hulme shows:

A touch of cold in the Autumn night – I walked abroad, And saw the ruddy moon lean over a hedge Like a red-faced farmer. I did not stop to speak, but nodded, And round about were the wistful stars With white faces like town children.

Note the lines can be very short (like that second one) or much longer (the third), there is no rhyme at the ends of the lines, and no set rhythm. However, much free verse does still have a loose rhythm. It just isn’t rigidly enforced throughout the poem. It’s more like a rough beat for the poet to keep coming back to. We’ve written a more in-depth introduction to free verse .

4 thoughts on “10 Essential Verse Forms Everyone Should Know”

The ode less travvelled is fantastic. Another very good book is Meter and meaning, by T. Carper and D Attridge. It is more specifically on meter rather than form, but I recommend it: it is not difficult and doesn’t get lost in complicated terminology.

Good shout on the Carper and Attridge. There’s an art to talking about metre without getting frustratingly over-technical, and that book gets it just right.

I teach English lang. and lit in Italy, and most of my colleagues either only cover Iambic pentameter (well, that’s a lot of course) or worry about teaching terminology the way the Latin lit teacher do it, without really working on how meter works. Meter and meaning helped me find a way to do that, and confirmed in my idea that once you know binary meters in English you’ve got what you need.

Very helpful. You omitted to mention that most English sonnets are written in pentameters, but I’m glad you haven’t repeated the heresy that all sonnets have to have lines of only ten syllables. The rule for sonnet lines, as for all pentameters, is simply that there have to be five STRESSED syllables. As a simple examination of Shakespeare’s and Milton’s sonnets shows. Ten syllables may be a useful discipline but it is NOT compulsory

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Free Verse Definition

What is free verse? Here’s a quick and simple definition:

Free verse is the name given to poetry that doesn’t use any strict meter or rhyme scheme . Because it has no set meter, poems written in free verse can have lines of any length, from a single word to much longer. William Carlos Williams’s short poem “The Red Wheelbarrow” is written in free verse. It reads: “so much depends / upon / a red wheel / barrow / glazed with rain / water / beside the white / chickens.”

Some additional key details about free verse:

• The opposite of free verse is formal verse , or poetry that uses both a strict meter and rhyme scheme.
• Not only do poets writing in free verse have the freedom to write unrhymed lines of any length, but they also often use enjambment in unconventional ways, inserting line breaks in the middle of sentences and even in the middle of words (such as “wheelbarrow” and “rainwater”).
• Walt Whitman is often said to be the father of free verse. It’s true that he popularized this type of poetry, but in fact there were others who had written unrhymed, unmetered poetry before him.
• Most poets writing today write in free verse.

Free Verse in Depth

In order to understand free verse in more depth, it’s helpful to have a strong grasp of a few other literary terms related to poetry. We cover each of these in depth on their own respective pages, but below is a quick overview to help make understanding blank verse easier.

• Formal verse : Poetry with a strict meter (rhythmic pattern) and rhyme scheme.
• Blank verse : Poetry with a strict meter but no rhyme scheme.
• Free verse: Poetry without any strict meter or rhyme scheme.
• Stress : In poetry, the term stress refers to the emphasis placed on certain syllables in words. For instance, in the word “happily” the emphasis is on the first syllable (“hap”), so “hap” is the “stressed” syllable and the other two syllables (“pi” and “ly”) are “unstressed.”
• Foot : In poetry, a "foot" refers to the rhythmic units of stressed and unstressed syllables that make up lines of meter . For example, an iamb is one type of foot that consists of one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, as in the word "De- fine ."
• Meter : A pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables that defines the rhythm of lines of poetry. Poetic meters are named for the type and number of feet they contain. For example, iambic pentameter is a type of meter that contains five iambs per line (thus the prefix “penta,” which means five).

Free Verse, Meter, and Rhyme

Poems written in free verse are characterized by generally not using meter or rhyme , but that doesn’t mean that they can never include meter or rhyme. In fact, poets writing in free verse often do include a bit of meter or rhyme in their poetry. Saying that a poem is “free verse” just means that the use of meter or rhyme is not extensive or consistent in the poem.

For instance, TS Elliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is a famous free verse poem in which many lines end in rhyme, but those rhymes don't follow any particular pattern (or rhyme scheme ) and the poem follows no particular meter. Similarly, Walt Whitman was known to occasionally lapse in and out of using meter in his unrhymed poetry—but for the most part his poems don’t make use of meter, so they’re still considered free verse.

Stanzas in Free Verse

While some types of formal verse have specific requirements for the length or number of stanzas , free verse has no such restrictions. A poet writing in free verse may use stanzas of regular length consistently throughout their poem, though more often than not the length of stanzas in free verse poems varies at least somewhat throughout the poem—which is just to say that they don't follow any rule in particular.

Free Verse and Prose Poems

Since free verse is, by definition, free of formal constraints, there aren’t any specific types or “forms” of free verse poetry (as there are with formal verse)—except for one. Prose poems are a specific type of free verse poetry that doesn’t have any line breaks, and which therefore take the form of paragraphs.

Free Verse Examples

T.s. eliot's "the love song of j. alfred prufrock".

This famous free verse poem by T.S. Eliot rhymes, but not according to any particular pattern, and it doesn’t use meter (note how varied the line lengths are). Here's an excerpt:

Let us go then, you and I, When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherized upon a table; Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets, The muttering retreats Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells: Streets that follow like a tedious argument Of insidious intent To lead you to an overwhelming question ... Oh, do not ask, “What is it?” Let us go and make our visit.

Walt Whitman's "When Lilacs Last In Dooryard Bloom’d"

Walt Whitman is best known for writing free verse, but he often injected metered lines into his free verse sporadically. Here the second line is a near-perfect line of dactylic hexameter (six feet of stressed - unstressed - unstressed syllables) that appears seemingly out of the blue. The lines before and after this example are not dactylic at all.

I fled forth to the hiding receiving night that talks not, Down to the shores of the wa ter , the path by the swamp in the dim ness , To the solemn shadowy cedars and ghostly pines so still.

E.E. Cummings's "[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]"

E.E. Cummings was famous for pushing the boundaries of what many readers would have even recognized as poetry at the time when he was writing. Written in free verse, the formal inventiveness of his poetry bucks many other poetic conventions as well, including the use of proper punctuation and normal rules of indentation. [i carry your heart with me(i carry it in] is one of his more well-known poems, and it uses rhyme irregularly throughout. This excerpt contains the poem's first two stanzas:

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart)i am never without it(anywhere i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done by only me is your doing,my darling)                                                                         i fear no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true) and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you

William Carlos Williams's "This Is Just To Say"

Williams's writing is a good example of the incredibly spare, restrained style that can be achieved through free verse—in this case, by using very short lines to heighten language that might otherwise seem perfectly ordinary and unremarkable. Here are the first two stanzas of his famous poem, "This is Just to Say":

I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast

Why Do Writers Use Free Verse?

Generally speaking, formal verse gradually fell out of fashion with poets over the course of the 20th century. This was in part because, as literacy levels rose, meter and rhyme (which originated as formal features to aid in memorization and comprehension) no longer seemed necessary.

But free verse was also attractive to poets simply because it lacked the restrictions and constraints imposed on poetry by meter and rhyme, and therefore left it to the poet to determine the form his or her poem would take—and to invent his or her own restrictions and constraints. Today, it could be said that the main reason most poets write in free verse is simply that it has become the norm, in much the same way that formal and blank verse were once the norm.

While free verse lacks some of the restraints of formal and blank verse, it still involves all the elements that make up the form of a poem (including diction , syntax , lineation , stanza , rhythm , and the many different types of rhyme ). It's just that there aren't any rules governing how they must be used.

Other Helpful Free Verse Resources

• The Wikipedia Page on Free Verse : An overview of free verse, including a bit more information on the history of its use.
• The Dictionary Definition of Free Verse : A simple definition of free verse.
• Collected free verse : A webpage that compiles some of the more famous examples of free verse poetry from history.
• Free Verse on Youtube : A short video that gives a basic definition of free verse and provides some examples.

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6 Books in Verse That Will Leave You in Awe

Yashvi Peeti

Yashvi Peeti is an aspiring writer and an aspiring penguin. She has worked as an editorial intern with Penguin Random House India and HarperCollins Publishers India. She is always up for fangirling over poetry, taking a walk in a park, and painting tiny canvases. You can find her on Instagram @intangible.perception

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A Poet’s Glossary defines books in verse as “A novel in poetry. A hybrid form, the verse novel filters the devices of fiction through the medium of poetry.” Fiction filtered through verse are stories gifted with all the beauty and liberation provided by poetic devices. Here’s a list that holds wonderful books in verse that have moved me with their narrative, intensity and rhythm.

Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga

This book in verse follows a young Syrian refugee as she leaves her home, father, and brother behind to live in Cincinnati with her mother and relatives. The tender and torn perspective of the middle grader captures the inner conflict of being a refugee. The verse format and hard-hitting lines call for our empathy and kindness.

“There is an Arabic proverb that says: She makes you feel like a loaf of freshly baked bread.

It is said about the nicest kindest people. The type of people who help you rise.”

For Every One by Jason Reynolds

For Every One truly is for every one. It is a letter in verse to all dreamers. Jason Reynolds acknowledges and appreciates all the colors and shades of dreams that humanity can hold within its heart. It reminds every reader of both the weight and weightlessness of every dream they hold. I highly recommend that you read this short, wonderful book in verse in one sitting.

“Though the struggle is always made to sound admirable and poetic, the thumping uncertainty is still there.”

The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta

This beautiful book follows Michael, a half Jamaican, half Greek-Cyprian boy who is trying to come to terms with his mixed-race queer identity. The novel holds important conversations about race, sexuality, homophobia, and racism. It introduces ideas such as internalized racism and homophobia which give us much-needed insights. Filled with intensity, fierceness, confusion and celebration; this verse novel is an entire journey.

“Don’t come out unless you want to. Don’t come out for anyone else’s sake. Don’t come out because you think society expects you to. Come out for yourself. Come out to yourself. Shout, sing it. Softly stutter. Correct those who say they knew before you did. That’s not how sexuality works, it’s yours to define.”

Turtle Under Ice by Juleah del Rosario

Told in dual perspectives, this verse novel captures the grief and hope of two sisters after losing their mother. Its haunting yet eloquent style makes the story hit home. The lines make you pause and ponder and feel deeper.

“But that’s not what our family is.

It’s a frayed string of lights that someone needs to fix with electrical tape.

It’s the electricity that can’t get to us because Mom’s bulb has burned out, so now the whole string is dark.

But without the lights turned on, does anyone even notice that we are broken?”

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When You Ask Me Where I’m Going by Jasmin Kaur

Wonderfully woven with poetry, illustrations, and prose, this book will leave you in awe. It tells the story of two Sikh women in a land away from home; a mother and a daughter navigating with fear, love and hope. It tackles difficult political, feminist and mental health themes with a voice that is as fierce as it is gentle.

“a woman once offered me a pencil and i thanked her profusely

another offered me life again and again and i never got around to thanking her.”

Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhhà Lai

Inside Out & Back Again was inspired by Thanhhà Lại’s own experiences. She writers in the author’s note: “At age ten, I, too, witnessed the end of the Vietnam War and fled to Alabama with my family. I, too, had a father who was missing in action. I also had to learn English and even had my arm hair pulled the first day of school. The fourth graders wanted to make sure I was real, not an image they had seen on TV.” The eloquent verse format explores the journey of a young, fierce girl navigating an unfamiliar world while craving the comfort of home.

“But last night I pouted when Mother insisted one of my brothers must rise first this morning to bless our house because only male feet can bring luck.

An old, angry knot expanded in my throat.

I decided to wake up before dawn and tap my big toe

to the tile floor first.

Not even Mother, sleeping beside me, knew. February 11 Tết”

For more recommendations, check out our list of 100 Must-Read YA Books in Verse .

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A Brief History of the Novel in Verse

Poetry is constantly evolving, becoming more diverse and wide-ranging. In fact, sometimes it refuses to be contained within one genre, leading to innovative works that blur categorization and boundaries. The novel in verse, in particular, brings together both fiction and poetry, using the imagery-driven lyricism of poetry to make a narrative impact. Though this genre has roots in sprawling and ancient epic poetry, it gained traction in the 19th century. Here are some of the novel in verse’s biggest moments and most spotlighted texts.

19th century

It took the famed and prolific Lord Byron five years to compose the 16 cantos that make up Don Juan , one of the earliest examples of the novel in verse. Published in 1823, the novel satirizes topics like dating, seduction, and British aristocracy. Like many influential works, Don Juan received backlash , with critics calling it immoral and speculating that Lord Byron found inspiration from those in his own life. Nevertheless, the text continues to be studied today, with many noting its surprising twists and unabashed playfulness. 

Another early novel in verse comes from acclaimed classic writer Elizabeth Barrett Browning , who published Aurora Leigh in 1856. The book stretches across nine volumes, as well as spans the varied, sophisticated settings of Florence, London, and Paris. Told in a diary-like style with a strong, first-person voice, Aurora Leigh chronicles its titular character’s childhood, her pursuit of an education, and her accomplishments as a writer. 

20th century

The 20th century introduced the novel in verse to an expanded audience, with major publishers taking on these titles, which went on to win notable awards. Alan Wearne ’s The Nightmarkets— a searing yet funny book that criticizes bureaucracy and money in politics—came out in 1986. With this release, Wearne achieved honors like winning the Grace Levin Prize and Colin Roderick Award. Wearne also showcased the international appeal of the novel in verse, as well as the genre’s ability to reflect a sense of place, culture, and history, through his depiction of Melbourne suburbs throughout The Nightmarkets. 

The 20th century also cemented the novel in verse as a genre that connects with children and YA audiences , a trend that continues today. Newberry Medal winner Sharon Creech became a fixture in school libraries with Love That Dog and Heartbeats , two novels that featured storylines about young teenagers exploring creative self-expression and coming of age. While these novels in verse spoke from a modern perspective, Karen Hesse ’s Out of the Dust— another iconic YA title in the genre—transported readers to the Oklahoman Dust Bowl, using the novel in verse as a compelling, more person-centered way to introduce historical lessons and perspectives. 

Recently, the novel in verse has propelled itself toward more recognition and popularity. In 2018, The Long Take by Robin Robertson won the Walter Scott Prize and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Told from the perspective of a veteran who served in Normandy, the book discusses trauma, homelessness, and gentrification, as readers follow the main character through New York City, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. 

Novels in verse often blend not only fiction and poetry, but multiple cultures or multiple languages. Leticia Sala ’s In Real Life , published in 2020, is a Spanish and English novel that speaks to the common experience of finding love online through a distinctly uncommon lens: This love takes the protagonist from Barcelona to New York City. 

This is part of Read Poetry’s National Poetry Month series. For more on the history of poetry, check out our introductions to free verse , lyric poetry , and spoken word .

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Verse Novels Are Everywhere—Here’s How to Teach Them

The distinct and evolving genre merges devices of fiction and poetry with a clear narrative arc—and it’s uniquely compelling to middle and high school readers.

Last spring, the English supervisor in my district sent an unexpected gift to teachers: a list of several dozen books from which we could each order six for our classrooms on the district’s dime. Many titles were familiar classics such as Poe short stories and Twain novels. But a portion of the books were in a format I’d not yet incorporated in my teaching: novels in verse, also called verse novels. Among the selections for eighth grade were bestsellers like Jason Reynolds’s Long Way Down , Elizabeth Acevedo’s The Poet X , and Thanhha Lai’s Inside Out and Back Again . 

Verse novels are having a moment—in the publishing world and in classrooms across America. Often using free verse, creative punctuation, and in some cases blank space to tell stories with characters and narrative arcs, they recall ancient epic poetry but are recast in today’s vernacular, multimedia fluency, and cultural diversity. “Over the last few years, we’ve seen such an amazing boom” in verse novels, says Philadelphia-based literary agent Eric Smith, “particularly from marginalized writers.” The Song of Us , published this year and written by Smith’s client Kate Fussner, for instance, retells the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in verse as a queer love story. Reynolds, who is the Library of Congress’s 2020 national ambassador for young people’s literature, blurbed the book as “a gorgeous tale” that “feels like a song.”

To find out more about how middle and high school teachers are incorporating this exciting literary form into lessons, I checked in with educators from Texas to Shanghai and came away inspired to use verse novels with my students this year.  

A Powerful Engagement Hook

The immediacy, expansiveness, and playfulness of verse novels draw in students who otherwise may find poetry opaque or flowery, and prose novels intimidatingly dense. They also tend to let students begin to see a place for themselves as writers. “They start realizing that writing doesn’t have to be a specific thing,” says Schuyler Hunt, a ninth-grade teacher in Washington, D.C. “Writing doesn’t have to fit in a narrow box; it can be expansive, it can be playful, it can be outside of a formal register and still have tremendous power.” 

Teachers who’ve taught verse novels for years told me about their immediacy. Written with YA readers in mind, they’re often focused on contemporary concerns, engaging kids quickly, compared with, for example, classic long-form poems like The Odyssey —which may take longer for kids to connect with but should continue to be an important part of the reading mix. Students find a verse novel like Inside Out and Back Again “easy to read and understand because each of the poems are set up like snapshots of a moment in time,” says Lisa Bello, a middle school teacher in Jersey City, New Jersey. Because they use blank space and creative lineation, verse novels can provide a transition from illustrated books to all-text novels. Yet teachers emphasize that they are not simply a step on the way to “real novels” but a valuable and essential form that engages students and leans on oral traditions, broadening the middle and high school canons.

The engagement piece is critical, of course, as the research continues to track how reading for pleasure, now at its lowest level in decades, drops precipitously by middle school, according to the Pew Research Center . Around third grade, 42 percent of kids say they read for fun almost every day, but by age 13, that number drops to 17 percent. Experts such as the psychologist Jean Twenge attribute this decline to the distractions of social media and smartphones , but others fault school accountability measures , which haven’t led to significant gains in reading or engagement , especially as testing mandates squeeze out classroom activities known to reinforce lifelong reading habits, such as independent reading time and access to different genres and formats.

With verse novels, the appearance of brevity “never fails to hook my reluctant readers,” says Rebecca Decker, who teaches English at Brick Township High School in New Jersey. Her observation is echoed by many teachers I spoke with. “The amount of blank space on the pages is initially very attractive,” says high school teacher Hunt. “Blank space defines what is actually on the page. It’s a great exercise in inferential reading.” 

While the clever, sparse writing style and format may appeal to new or lapsed readers, teachers say it allows for a similar level of layered analytical interpretation as they’d use in a poetry unit. The verse novel “allows teachers the flexibility of having deeper discussion, and it empowers kids because they can finish a book,” says Bloomington, Illinois, high school teacher Brandon Thornton. “I felt more empowered to teach figurative language in context—to have a text in front of me to say when [Reynolds] says your tail is showing, he’s not talking about a dog tail.”

Like Someone Talking In Your Ear

While verse novels may feel like a new and exciting type of reading when students first encounter them, teachers point out that the form has a long history, going back to epic poetry and oral storytelling. Verse novels, says Rebecca Decker, “are updated forms of writing we have had for centuries. But therein lies the key—they’re updates . Our students are worlds apart from The Odyssey , and while it’s important to show them where writing has come from, I believe as an educator it is even more important to show them how writing has evolved.” 

Verse novels tend to be first person and personal, making them uniquely accessible to younger readers. They are often “very direct, almost like someone is talking in your ear, someone is pouring their heart out to you, and kids relate to that,” says author Betty Culley, whose book The Name She Gave Me follows an adoptee finding her birth mother.

They are also expansive in whose voices and lives are featured in a story. “With students who are first generation or immigrants themselves, sometimes it makes them feel less alone because they can identify with some of the experiences of the characters,” says Bello, the middle school teacher. Many cultures had long literary traditions before the popularization of the prose novel in 19th-century Europe. While the first identified novel, or fictional work in prose, is an 11th-century Japanese work , The Tale of Genji, most global cultures historically focused on poetry and drama.

The connection to spoken word and oral storytelling resonated with the Latinae and Black San Diego high school students in the classroom of Andreana McCall, now an English professor at Mount San Antonio College. “Students from historically marginalized communities—Black, brown, Asian—have oral traditions. They are familiar with tia s and tio s telling stories at community and familial events. When they are exposed to a writing form that mimics that, then they are at home.” McCall would preface reading of The Poet X , about a high school student who finds a home in the school’s slam poetry club, with videos of the author sharing spoken-word poems, which grabbed her students’ interest immediately. 

Verse Novels in the Classroom

As I spoke with teachers about the verse novel format and its impact on middle and high school readers, they shared many creative strategies for teaching these books in class. Here are four standout approaches. 

Create book clubs: Students can pick from a selection of verse novels to form book clubs and then discuss and analyze literary elements in whole-class lessons. Schuyler Hunt’s ninth graders choose from Long Way Down , The Poet X , and Dean Atta’s The Black Flamingo for an end-of-year unit where they examine the author’s use of language (and their own language growth) through a full-class Socratic seminar and a portfolio. In Matthew Kloosterman’s middle-school classroom in Shenzhen, China, students form book clubs that support a shared theme. “Students can take a stance as a book club on whether their verse novel connects or does not to the theme, with justification provided,” he says.

Dive into literary analysis: Verse novels can be accessible as whole-class reads, focusing on analysis of poetic and narrative elements, from metaphor and simile to characterization and conflict. Students can analyze a poem or page during one class. Bloomington’s Thornton adjusts his figurative language lessons to incorporate examples from Long Way Down , and students write their own couplets in response, highlighting a literary element.

Explore themes and background knowledge: Most verse novels make a point to engage with larger social issues. While reading Reynolds’s Long Way Down, Thornton’s 11th graders in Indiana focus on the idea of rules and which ones are productive, culminating in an impassioned debate about the book’s open-ended conclusion. Rebecca Decker’s students read the same book for a unit on juvenile justice. Kloosterman’s middle-grade students in China compare themes of truth, history, and individual freedom in Long Way Down and The Outsiders . Independent reading and multimedia responses: Students can pick a verse novel from a classroom library or from a curated selection of verse novels for independent reading, and then highlight favorite quotes on a classroom quote wall or via multimedia projects such as music videos, written poetry, or spoken-word poetry. McCall’s students’ final project, for example, was a short video montage that featured their own poem in the style of Acevedo with accompanying music and photographs.

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Writing Novels in Verse: 5 Articles To Help You With Form, Structure, and Style

Sep 23, 2021 | Novels in Verse

The verse novel is an incredibly powerful art form when done well, packing a punch with judicious word choices, open spaces, vivid encapsulations of scenes and emotions, all delivered in a narrative that flows rhythmically. We’ve put together a few articles to help you explore questions to consider when writing a verse novel and to discover what makes a novel in verse successful.

Verse Novels: A String of Emotional Moments

Successful verse novelists Padma Venkatraman and Joy McCullough interview each other about why they write novels in verse and discuss some of the ways in which verse novels differ from prose novels, what some of their favorite verse novels are, and how to know when a story is well suited for the novel in verse form. Read the full article .

Auditioning Poetry Devices for Your Verse Novel’s Voice

Writing verse novels means tackling particular limitations but it also means uncovering, experimenting and a lot of play. It is an expansive form that can be liberating! One of the major liberations is all that poetry has to offer your verse novel. Opening up the poetry toolbox and finding the precise tools you need to create a dynamic voice for your narrative style is one of the most exciting aspects of writing verse novels. Read the full article .

Read a Verse Novel a Day for Poetry Month

Verse novelist Kathryn Erskine decided to read a verse novel each day of April. Her round-up of the books she read provides an introduction to some really great verse novels. Read the full article .

Imagining an Image System for Your Novel in Verse

An image system is the family of images (metaphors, similes, symbols, etc.) an author chooses to showcase in their verse novel. An image system, by use of extended metaphors, can show how characters emotionally grow and change through the course of a story. They also can work to build story tension, foreshadow events, develop secondary characters, inspire characters to action, illuminate setting and reflect a story question or theme. Image systems in verse novels can reveal character growth and central story themes and questions. Read the full article .

The Verse Novel: If I Can Do It, So Can You

Kathryn Erskine talks about how she decided that verse was the right vehicle for her novel: “Using the verse form enabled me to focus on emotions. I could use a variety of characters and viewpoints, so the reader could see and evaluate the big picture. I could string the scenes and people together with an invisible thread from one person’s consciousness to another’s, weaving the story from their different voices.” Read the full article .

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Reading Middle Grade

Books for Kids and Grown Ups

30 Best Middle-Grade Novels in Verse

Middle-Grade novels in verse have been around for a while. Not sure what that is? Novels in verse are novels written in stanzas, pretty much like poetry. Still, they weave in dialogue, characters, and all the elements of a novel. I’m not a massive fan of novels in verse (generally) because they tend to lack the level of detail I enjoy in novels, but there are several that I’ve read and LOVED.

Anyone can enjoy middle-grade novels in verse but I definitely think poetry lovers would gravitate more to this narrative form. They also work well for ESL students as the vocabulary tends to be simpler and more accessible. For this list, I’m sharing my FAVORITE verse novels for the middle school (and upper elementary) crowd, many of which tackle tough issues like immigration, mental health, and grief. You’ll also find an engaging mix of historical and contemporary options.

Join our Patreon community to get the printable version of this li st ! You’ll also get access to other kid lit resources and perks, like our seasonal guides and educator interviews, to inspire you.

30 Moving Middle-Grade Novels in Verse

Here are 30 best middle grade novels in verse:

This survival verse novel follows 12-year-old Maddie, who gets abandoned by some twist of fate when her entire town is mysteriously evacuated. Left alone with no human in sight, she bonds with a Rottweiler named George, who is one of many abandoned pets. Soon after, they lose power and then water, and Maddie has to fend for herself using a variety of ingenious means and the town resources at her disposal, including an empty library, grocery store, and neighbors’ homes. Kids in grades 6+ won’t be able to get enough of this verse novel with a tenacious protagonist and engaging plot.

Isabel in Bloom

After years of living in the Philippines while her mom works abroad, it’s finally time for Isabel to reunite with her mother in California. But when she arrives, there’s so much to adjust to, from snooty classmates to big malls, the absence of green space in their small apartment, and the different food. Armed with her grandfather’s advice to look for the familiar, things slowly get easier as she joins a cooking club in school and starts working on growing the school garden. I enjoyed this one and loved the underrepresented theme of an immigrant parent reuniting with a child and the insight into balikbayan boxes. It also includes a depiction of Filipino culture and musings about elderly Asian attacks as one older man in the community is attacked. Good for readers in grades 6+

Other Words for Home

Young Jude is uprooted from her life in Syria in the midst of the civil unrest. She and her mother (who is pregnant) moved temporarily to Cincinnati to live with her uncle and his family. Jude is sad to leave behind her country, best friend Fatima, father, and brother who’s involved in various protests in Syria. In America, Jude — who used to be the best English student in Syria — has to join an ESL class and deal with questions about her hijab. Still, Jude finds good things in America and learns how brave she can be. I would recommend Other Words for Home to anyone looking for stories set in Syria, fans of Hena Khan’s Amina’s Voice, and readers in search of a story with a brave female protagonist.

Louder Than Hunger

In John Schu’s debut middle-grade verse novel, he pulls back the curtain to let readers into a fictionalized depiction of his struggle with an eating disorder and life in a facility fighting against the condition. This book is truly a gut punch and flies by so quickly for such a thick novel with a tough subject matter — a testament to Schu’s great writing. Perfect for readers in grades 6+ looking for more  body image books  and fans of Lerner’s  A Work in Progress .

Closer to Nowhere

This was my first Ellen Hopkins book, and I get the hype now. It grabbed me from page one with unmistakable character voices. Readers will follow Cal and Hannah, two cousins suddenly living under the same roof after a family tragedy. While Cal twists the truth and likes pranks, Hannah is serious and “honest as the day is long.” This is a heartwrenching and heartwarming book about family, grief, substance abuse, and empathy. Great for grades 6+ and especially grades 7 & 8.

Force of Nature

This verse novel is inspired by the life of Rachel Carson and presents a well detailed account of her childhood, passion for nature, and love for her mother. It also features art by Sophie Blackall. Although I love verse novels, I didn’t know much about Carson’s life and wasn’t as invested in this one. However, the writing is nostalgic and poetic and the illustrations complement the text nicely. Fans of Rachel Carson and poetry will love this. Grades 5+

Before the Ever After

ZJ’s dad is a popular pro American footballer. He has a awesome crew of male friends who feel like family. Life seems pretty good until his dad comes home early from a game with an awful headache. The headache is joined by disturbing symptoms like forgetfulness, aggression, spacing out, and general confusion. The book is set in 1999-2000, when there was just a growing awareness of CTE. ZJ’s mom is worried because she knows a few other football friends of his dad who have had the same symptoms. As ZJ tries to get through each day, not knowing whether it’ll be a good day for his dad or a bad one, he finds comfort in family, comfort, and community. This is a brilliant, true-to-life portrayal of a child coping with his famous father’s deterioration due to CTE. Grades 6+

Tully Birch’s mom left them weeks ago and Tully is convinced that if she does a marathon swim, something her mom was supposed to help her train for, her mom would see she is worth returning for. Her friend Arch is her only supporter, and although the swim starts out well, the weather, poor training, the weight of sad memories, and fatigue catch up with Tully just around the halfway mark. This book is gorgeously written and accessible for tween readers. I loved the shape poems, the survival edge throughout the story, and Tully and Arch’s friendship. I also enjoyed the way Sumner gradually shows readers a clearer vision of Tully’s mom besides the initial rosy depiction we see. This is a very short book that will appeal to fans of Alone and verse novel lovers in general. Grades 5+

Forget Me Not

Read this book about a girl with Tourette’s in one sitting! Calliope June’s mother moves around so often and yet always wants her to hide the fact that she has Tourette’s. Of course, hiding TS is nearly impossible because Calliope sometimes unintentionally makes noises or faces (tics). Things get interesting when she meets and likes a boy who turns out to be a popular student in her school. At first, he seems to like her, but when people at school make fun of Callie, he’s embarrassed to be seen with her. This novel in verse, is so beautifully written. I felt Calliope’s pain in every word. Such an unexpectedly moving book. Highly recommend! Grades 6+

Ultraviolet

Elio is in love for the first time, and his dreams come true when Camelia, his crush, becomes his first girlfriend. His first relationship and an association of males teach him plenty about consent, patriarchy, toxic masculinity, and respect for women. Plenty happens in this book, written in lyrical, accessible verse that feels akin to Judy Blume but for boys, as Salazar writes candidly about Elio’s morning erection, nocturnal emissions, and the way he feels down there when he’s around Camelia. Still, the text remains appropriate for tweens and young teens looking for more information than they might be getting from their parents about vital sex ed. Good for grades 7+

Starfish features Ellie, a fat girl who has been bullied for her weight since she wore a whale swimsuit and made a big splash in the pool. Even her older brother and sister make fun of her weight. Her mom controls her diet, monitoring her portions and choosing lackluster “healthy” alternatives. Ellie is feeling more disheartened because her friend Viv who is also plus-sized is moving away. Thankfully, after Viv moves, Ellie finds a friend in her new neighbor Catalina and her family. The family loves food and welcome Ellie with open arms, never judging her for her weight. This is a powerful, fat-positive middle grade verse novel about a girl who is learning that she deserves to take up space. Grades 5+

Iveliz Explains It All

In this Newbery Honor book, we meet Iveliz, a new 7th grader who’s recovering from a rough year and determined to bounce back. Unfortunately, more life changes, unprocessed grief, and mental health challenges threaten to keep her stuck. My heart ached for Iveliz throughout this story, and I think it will especially speak to tweens struggling with their mental health. I also loved the notebook-style font design and illustrations throughout the book. Good for grades 6+

Everywhere Blue

When Madrigal’s (Maddie) older brother, Strum, goes missing from his college campus, her musical family loses its harmony. Her French mother is distraught — broken for the first time as Maddie has never seen her. Her piano-playing father doesn’t even touch his instrument, and her fiery sister retreats into a rebellious funk, drinking and partying, even though she’s only 16. Maddie tries to keep everything together: focus on her oboe lessons and compulsive counting that calms her mind. Eventually, though, with all leads looking dead-ended, Maddie just might have what it takes to find Strum. But can she find her way to him? Everywhere Blue is a poignant, moving middle grade verse novel about family, mental health, music, and caring for the environment. Grades 6+

Malian is stuck visiting her grandparents when the COVID pandemic starts. When a stray rez dog shows up at their door, Malian is eager to welcome him in. This is a warm, gentle, and short verse novel (with very little plot) about the ways indigenous communities look out for each other (and how they did in times past). Grades 5+

The Magical Imperfect

Etan develops selective mutism after his mom has to go to a treatment facility for a mental disorder in 1980’s San Francisco. Around that time, mini-earthquakes are frequent and Etan tries to keep up his daily schedule, which is basically school and then time with his grandfather. Sometimes, he helps an older shopkeeper in the neighborhood walk her dog and run errands. It is while he is on one of those errands that he meets Malia, a Filipina-American girl with severe eczema. Etan and Malia become fast friends and he gets a closer look at how debilitating her eczema is. He wants to take Malia’s suffering away, and he thinks his grandfather’s Dead Sea clay can make a difference — perhaps even heal Malia’s eczema. But will the clay work? This is an incredibly moving verse novel about friendship, family, body image, and community. Grades 6+

Thirteen-year-old Ava lives in 80s California and loves to catch a wave with her best friend, Phoenix, a cancer survivor, whom she’s beginning to crush on. Her mom is a single mother and her dad lives in Iran with his new family and rarely contacts them. Ava likes to write poetry and sing (she’s getting to sing in the school choir soon) but her mom who’s a doctor wants Ava to consider that career path. Amidst all the drama, Phoenix’s lymphoma returns aggressively and he doesn’t want to pursue treatment anymore. Can Ava convince him to keep trying? This is a lyrical, captivating, and heartwrenching middle grade verse novel about first crushes, surfing, and grief. Grades 7+

Red, White, and Whole

The year is 1983, and 13-year-old Reha is caught between two cultures: her Indian family and community at home and the all-American experience at school and with her white “school best friend.” But it’s not all rosy. Her mother doesn’t approve of Reha acting more American than Indian. Then her mom is diagnosed with leukemia, and Reha’s life is turned upside down. Between school, family issues, and navigating her affection for a boy in her neighborhood, Reha has her plate full. Red, White, and Whole is a heartwarming and heartbreaking verse novel about mothers and daughters, the eighties, and straddling two cultures. Grades 6+

The Lost Language

The Lost Language centers around 6th grade Betsy and her best friend, Lizard (both girls are actually named Elizabeth!) who decide to save a disappearing language Guernsiais (spoken on the small Isle of Guernsey, off the coast of France). Betsy’s mom is a passionate linguist who — unbeknownst to Betsy — is also dealing with depression and anxiety. Lizard has always been a bit of a bossy, possessive friend, thanks to her assertive character. As the two girls work on the project together, cracks in their friendship begin to show and a near-tragedy in Betsy’s family threatens to tear them apart. This is a thoughtful, engaging look into a changing friendship as one friend grows into herself. Grades 5+

The Crossover

Thanks to their dad, Josh and his twin brother, Jordan, are kings on the court. But Josh has more than basketball in his blood—he’s got mad beats, too, which help him find his rhythm when it’s all on the line. As their winning season unfolds, things begin to change. When Jordan meets a girl, the twins’ bond unravels. This is an utterly moving novel in verse. Grades 6+

Golden Girl

Afiyah has a problem with stealing things even when she tries really hard not to. Fortunately, she’s often remorseful and returns the stolen items. She’s shaken when her father is wrongfully arrested for embezzlement at the airport during a family trip. The situation puts a strain on her family and moves Afiyah to strongly examine her tendency to steal — especially after she gets caught in the act. This is a touching, realistic coming-of-age story about trying to break bad habits and dealing with a family crisis. Grades 6+

The One and Only Ivan

Having spent 27 years behind the glass walls of his enclosure in a shopping mall, Ivan has grown accustomed to humans watching him. He hardly ever thinks about his life in the jungle. Instead, Ivan occupies himself with television, his friends Stella and Bob, and painting. But when he meets Ruby, a baby elephant taken from the wild, he is forced to see their home, and his art, through new eyes. Grades 3+

The Night Diary

This is a heartbreaking middle grade book about a girl’s experience during the partition of India. Nisha is caught between her Hindu-Indian and Muslim-Indian sides. She’s also dealing with the loss of her mother. So when her country starts to split in two, her search for identity becomes even more meaningful. There’s a reason why this one is a Newbery Honor book. If your kids loved this book, here’s a list of more  books like  The Night Diary . Grades 6+

When Reena, her little brother, Luke, and their parents first move to Maine, Reena doesn’t know what to expect. She’s ready for beaches, blueberries, and all the lobster she can eat. Instead, her parents “volunteer” Reena and Luke to work for an eccentric neighbor named Mrs. Falala, who has a pig named Paulie, a cat named China, a snake named Edna—and that stubborn cow, Zora. This heartwarming story, told in a blend of poetry and prose, reveals the bonds that emerge when we let others into our lives. Grades 5+

Garvey’s Choice

This verse novel follows the evolution of a boy named Garvey, who loves astronomy, music, and books — everything but the sports that his dad would prefer he enjoys. Despite all the bullying he faces, once he joins the school chorus, he starts to grow past his father’s expectations, finding a way to connect with his father on his terms. Grades 5+

Reckless Glorious Girl

Beatrice lives with her Mawmaw (her grandmother) and her mom in Bardstown, Kentucky. Her father died in an accident months before she was born. The book is set the summer before seventh grade and Beatrice is trying to figure out who she wants to be. Although she has two great girlfriends, she’s curious about what life would be like with the popular girls. Reckless, Glorious, Girl is a quintessential coming-of-age story about a girl whose community of women helps her find herself.

The One Thing You’d Save

Linda Sue Park’s  The One Thing You’d Save  is a unique hybrid of sorts. It’s geared toward middle schoolers, but has lovely black and white illustrations on nearly every page. It is also less than 80 pages long, with sparse text in the Korean sijo poetry style. By the end of the class, even the teacher rethinks her choices, just as every reader will. This book might not satisfy you, if like me you enjoy plot, but it will make you think about the one thing, or things that matter most to you. Teachers and middle schoolers alike will find this book to be an excellent conversation starter, and the illustrations will entice reluctant and younger readers.

Emmy in the Key of Code

In a new city, at a new school, twelve-year-old Emmy has never felt more out of tune. Things start to look up when she takes her first coding class, unexpectedly connecting with the material—and Abigail, a new friend—through a shared language: music. But when Emmy gets bad news about their computer teacher, and finds out Abigail isn’t being entirely honest about their friendship, she feels like her new life is screeching to a halt. Despite these obstacles, Emmy is determined to prove one thing: that, for the first time ever, she isn’t a wrong note, but a musician in the world’s most beautiful symphony. Grades 6+

In the Beautiful Country

Living in 80s Taiwan with her mother, Ai Shi (Anna) eagerly anticipates living in the beautiful country (the US) where their father moved a few months ago. As she gives away her favorite clothes and toys to cousins in preparation for the move, she can’t help but brag about the new life awaiting them. But she’s in for a shock when they arrive at their cramped apartment. Her father was conned into buying a failing fast-food restaurant, and Anna’s parents struggle to make ends meet. At school, she feels like an outsider since she can barely speak English. On top of that, her parents are dealing with some unkind customers who mistreat them because they’re Asians.This is a moving, poignant, and lyrical verse novel about immigration, identity, food and family. Grades 6+

Rain Rising

13-year-old Rain is dealing with several issues. First, her best friend has been acting like a frenemy lately. Then, she’s just so sad all the time and can’t stop feeling negative about her body — thinking she’s ugly and too big. Her single source of solace is her family. When the thoughts become too tough to handle, her mother and brother Xander, especially, bring light to her day, even without knowing her challenges. But when Xander gets beaten up in a racially motivated attack during a potential college visit, Rain feels the walls closing in on her. Can she and her family find their way back to normalcy? Rain Rising is a powerful debut middle grade verse novel about mental health, body image, family, and healing. Grades 6+

When Winter Robeson Came

When Winter Robeson came to visit his cousin, Eden in the summer of 1965, he had another agenda. Winter is a 13-year-old boy visiting Los Angeles from Mississippi. Unbeknownst to Eden and her family, Winter isn’t just there to see Disneyland — he’s looking for his father J.T. Robeson who came to LA 12 years ago and never returned. Eventually, he gets Eden to help him on his search. Not long after, the Watts Riot erupts. This a rich, immersive middle grade verse novel about family, LA in 1965, and the mystery of a missing parent. Grades 5+

There they are! I hope you find one out of these 30 middle-grade novels in verse that you like. Want more? Find a running list of middle-grade novels in verse on author Sarah Tregay’s website .

More Middle-Grade Book Lists

• Verse novels for high school
• Poetry books for kids
• Historical fiction for middle schoolers

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• About Afoma Umesi

Afoma Umesi is the founder and editor of Reading Middle Grade where she curates book lists and writes book reviews for kids of all ages. Her favorite genre to read is contemporary realistic fiction and she'll never say no to a graphic novel.

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Reader Interactions

What do you think leave a comment cancel reply.

September 3, 2019 at 5:15 pm

I love MG novels in verse! Especially Inside Out and Back Again! Have you read Out of the Dust? (Mature MG) or Love That Dog (also by Creech)? I also enjoyed Finding Wonders (about the childhood of 3 women scientists) and Brown Girl Dreaming (memoir in verse).

September 4, 2019 at 3:57 pm

Hi Carol! No, I haven’t read either of those. I’ll definitely look them up. Verse novels are definitely hit or miss for me, haha, but I’m always open to new, excellent ones.

November 26, 2020 at 8:11 am

Afoma, I’d like to send you my novel-in-verse.

December 7, 2020 at 4:42 am

Hi Tammi, kindly look over my review policy – afomaumesi.com/review-policy

January 22, 2021 at 11:13 am

I adore verse novels! I also recommend Hidden by Helen Frost, Home of the Brave and The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate, All the Broken Pieces and Unbound by Ann Burg, and of course ANYTHING by Margarita Engle (although I know some of her others are meant for a more mature audience).

January 22, 2021 at 11:34 am

It’s crazy that I had IVAN on this list before and then took it out because I wasn’t sure it was in verse. I listened on audio and it sounded like verse but I just wasn’t sure anymore! Thanks for the recommendations — all lovely! I’ve never read Helen Frost, I must change that!

August 5, 2021 at 11:09 am

Really super list! I found you as a result of trying to recall the title of a middle grade novel in verse which I read last year, but I didn’t see it. No matter! There were so many other great suggestions. I shared your link with an Instagrammer looking for middle grade novels in verse. I know she’ll be visiting soon too. Thanks! Signed up for your newsletter. Looking forward to it.

April 1, 2024 at 2:05 pm

This is such a fantastic list! Glad I found it right in time for National Poetry Month.

My third novel, THE NIGHTMARE HOUSE, is a spooky book told in partial verse. It might be a great fit for this list, especially around Halloween time!

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374390952/the-nightmare-house

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What Is Verse? Definition & 10+ Examples

Ever wondered why poems sound so beautiful? That’s because of the verse — the heartbeat of the poem.

In this article, we’ll explore different types of verse and techniques poets use. We’ll look at famous examples, share fun facts, and give handy tips. Whether it’s rhyming lines or free verse, each has a special charm. Join us as we dive into the wonderful world of verse.

Ready? Let’s begin!

Table of Contents

Definition of Verse

Verse refers to a piece of writing that follows a metrical or rhythmic structure, often found in artistic forms such as poetry, song lyrics, and sacred texts.

It is a beautiful means of expressing emotions , ideas , and stories , using language that is both imaginative and evocative.

Verse can take on many different forms, including:

• Rhymed verse
• Blank verse

Some examples of verse in literature include the sonnets of Shakespeare, the epic poems of Homer, and the haiku of Basho. Each of these examples demonstrates the creative possibilities within the constraints of metrical and rhythmic patterns.

Example : Reading the opening lines of Robert Frost’s Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening aloud can help you hear the rhythm:

Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though;

Understanding variations in verse forms can yield deeper insight into the artistry and intentions of the author, which enhances the reader’s overall experience.

The Evolution of Verse from Traditional Rhythm to Contemporary Innovation

Though the traditional definition of verse relies on rhythm and pattern, contemporary forms of verse — such as free verse and prose poetry — bend or break these rules to achieve unique and innovative effects.

By breaking away from traditional patterns and structures, writers have discovered new ways to convey meaning and emotion through verse, demonstrating the inherent flexibility and adaptability of this art form.

Structural Elements of Verse

There are several key elements of verse that work together to create the overall structure and meaning of the work:

One of the crucial elements of verse is meter, which refers to the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line.

Meter is often described using terms such as iambic , trochaic , and anapestic , each referring to different patterns of syllable emphasis.

Example : In English poetry, iambic pentameter is a common meter, consisting of five iambs (an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one) per line. It can be observed in works like William Shakespeare’s sonnets and John Milton’s Paradise Lost.

Another vital element of verse is rhyme, which is the correspondence of similar sounds, typically at the end of lines. Rhyme can follow various patterns, such as:

• End rhyme (rhyming words at the end of lines)
• Internal rhyme (rhyming words within a single line)
• Slant rhyme (words with near-rhyming sounds)

Rhyme schemes are commonly denoted using letters (e.g., ABAB, AABB, ABCABC), and they play an important role in giving each verse a recognizable structure.

Stanzas: Building Blocks of Verse

Along with meter and rhyme, stanzas are another crucial element that helps define verse.

Stanzas are groupings of lines that divide a poem into sections, much like paragraphs in prose. Stanzas can have different numbers of lines, such as:

• Couplets : two lines that often rhyme, e.g., heroic couplets in Alexander Pope’s An Essay on Criticism
• Tercets : three lines, e.g., terza rima in Dante’s Divine Comedy
• Quatrains : four lines, e.g., Shakespeare’s sonnet structure
• Quintain : five lines
• Sestets : six lines, e.g., the conclusion of a Petrarchan sonnet

True wit is Nature to advantage dress’d; What oft was thought, but ne’er so well express’d. (An Essay on Criticism, Pope)

In the midway of this our mortal life, I found me in a gloomy wood, astray Gone from the path direct… (Divine Comedy, Dante)

These forms can be arranged and combined to create unique structures for each work.

The Power of Language and Imagery in Verse

Language and imagery are essential components of verse as well. Poets utilize a wide range of literary devices, such as simile , metaphor , alliteration , and personification , to convey complex ideas and emotions in a concise and impactful manner.

These techniques add depth and meaning to the work, allowing readers to engage with the poem on multiple levels.

Rhyme and Cadence: Impactful Components of Verse

Rhyme refers to the similarity of sounds at the end of words, often used to bring a sense of harmony or assonance to poetry.

One of the most common types of rhyme is end rhyme , where the final syllables of two or more words have the same sound.

There are several kinds of rhyme schemes, such as the ABAB pattern, where the first and third lines rhyme with each other while the second and fourth lines rhyme with each other.

Cadence, on the other hand, refers to the natural rhythm and flow of language. It’s the way a poet plays with the arrangement of syllables or stresses to create aural effects on the listener or reader.

In poetry, cadence is crucial for establishing a particular mood or atmosphere and can be achieved through the careful use of metrical patterns or varying line lengths.

Poets often combine rhyme and cadence to create a more powerful and pleasant verse experience. These elements, when skillfully employed, can heighten the emotional impact and overall beauty of a poem.

Mastering rhyme and cadence can significantly improve the readability and flow of a poem, making it more appealing to a wider audience.

Poetic Meters and Rhythmic Units

Iambs and trochees.

An iamb is a metrical pattern consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.

This basic rhythmic unit, also referred to as a foot, is commonly found in poetry and gives a rising cadence to the verse. Iambic meter is the most common meter used in English poetry.

Example of iambic meter :

To be or not to be, that is the question. (Shakespeare’s Hamlet)

A trochee is the opposite of an iamb, consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable. This metrical pattern creates a falling cadence, lending a more emphatic tone to the verse.

Trochaic meter is less common, but still prevalent in English poetry.

Example of trochaic meter :

Double, double toil and trouble… (Shakespeare’s Macbeth)

Anapests and Dactyls

An anapest is a metrical pattern characterized by two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable.

This foot creates a lilting, waltz-like rhythm, and is often found in lighter forms of poetry, such as comic verse or nursery rhymes.

Example of anapestic meter :

There once was a man from Peru… (Limerick)

A dactyl is the opposite of an anapest, consisting of a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables. This metrical pattern produces a galloping, energetic rhythm and is often seen in epic or narrative poetry.

Example of dactylic meter :

Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them… (Tennyson’s The Charge of the Light Brigade)

A spondee is a rare metrical pattern that consists of two consecutive stressed syllables. This creates a very forceful, deliberate rhythm.

Spondees are typically used sparingly in poetry, often to accentuate a particular moment or to create emphasis.

Example : “Gods and men,” where both syllables are stressed.

Verse Forms

A sonnet is a 14-line poetic form often associated with love and romance. There are two primary types of sonnets: the Petrarchan (or Italian) and the Shakespearean (or English).

Petrarchan Sonnet

This type consists of an octave (8 lines) followed by a sestet (6 lines). The octave typically presents a problem or conflict, while the sestet offers a resolution or response. The rhyme scheme is usually ABBAABBA for the octave and CDECDE or CDCCDC for the sestet.

Shakespearean Sonnet

This type has three quatrains (4-line stanzas) and a final rhymed couplet. The rhyme scheme is ABABCDCDEFEFGG. Each line is written in iambic pentameter.

How to Write Sonnets: Tips

Here are some tips for writing sonnets:

• Tip 1: Choose a theme, traditionally focusing on love or beauty
• Tip 2: Plan your rhyme scheme and structure
• Tip 3: Experiment with imagery and metaphors

An epic is a lengthy narrative poem that tells the story of a hero and their adventures. Some well-known epics include Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey , Virgil’s Aeneid , and Milton’s Paradise Lost .

Epic poetry has several common attributes:

• A vast setting, often encompassing the entire world.
• A hero with exceptional qualities and abilities.
• Intervention of supernatural forces.
• A central theme that reflects the values and beliefs of the culture.

A ballad is a narrative poem that retells a story, often in the form of short stanzas with a consistent meter and rhyme scheme.

Ballads can focus on various subjects, including love , legends , and historical events . They were initially meant to be sung or recited and often have a melodic, rhythmic quality.

Some common features of ballads include:

• Simple language and repetition
• A refrain , or repeated lines
• Dialogue between characters
• Incremental repetition, where the same event is described multiple times with minor variations

A villanelle is a 19-line fixed form poem with a distinctive pattern of repetition and a sophisticated rhyme scheme. It consists of five tercets (three-line stanzas) followed by a quatrain (four-line stanza).

The first and third lines of the opening tercet are repeated alternately as the final line of the following tercets and together as the closing couplet of the quatrain. The rhyme scheme is ABA ABA ABA ABA ABA ABAA.

• “Do not go gentle into that good night” by Dylan Thomas

Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

The Different Types of Verse

Poetry comes in various forms and styles, making it a diverse art form for both the writer and the reader.

There are three primary types of verse to consider: free verse, blank verse, and rhymed verse . Each presents unique characteristics, offering opportunities for creativity and expression.

Free verse, which gained popularity in the 20th century, is a style of poetry that places no restrictions on formal patterns, such as rhyme, meter, or syllabic count. It allows poets to experiment with language and form, creating a more natural flow.

Walt Whitman, a pioneer of free verse, used this form to great effect in his groundbreaking work, Leaves of Gras s. He is considered the “father of free verse.”

Blank Verse

Blank verse is a type of poetry that follows a specific meter, usually iambic pentameter, but does not rhyme. It can be seen as a more structured version of free verse, maintaining a sense of rhythm while still allowing flexibility.

John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost is a prime example of blank verse.

Rhymed Verse

Rhymed verse refers to poetry with consistent rhyme schemes and patterns. It can follow various meters and verse structures, such as sonnets, quatrains, or couplets.

Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock is an example of rhymed verse.

The Artistry of Verse: Poetry Techniques

Discussion of techniques.

In the world of verse, various techniques and elements create its beauty and impact. Two notable aspects include enjambment and the use of feet in poetry.

Enjambment is a technique where a sentence, phrase, or idea continues across multiple lines, often without punctuation, to emphasize a thought or idea dynamically.

Enjambment can create a sense of urgency , as it forces the reader to move quickly from one line to the next. It also helps to connect ideas and can blur the lines between stanzas, adding depth and richness. For example:

The sun is warm, the breeze is light, I wish to stay in this beautiful sight, But I must go, my path is clear, Leaving behind all that I hold dear.

In this example, the continued flow between lines provides a seamless transition from one thought to the next, reinforcing the emotion in the poem.

Use of Feet

In contrast, a foot is a basic unit of meter in poetry. It consists of a combination of stressed and unstressed syllables. The arrangement of feet often creates the overall rhythm and flow of the verse.

Different types of feet, such as iamb , trochee , and anapest , each provide unique patterns and contribute to the poem’s tone and mood:

Iamb (unstressed/stressed)

It has a light, rising cadence, often used for its natural flow in English. Example : “ To be, or not to be. “

Trochee (stressed/unstressed)

This has a strong, falling rhythm, creating a feeling of urgency or intensity. Example : “ Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright. “

Anapest (unstressed/unstressed/stressed)

This foot produces a swift, lighthearted cadence, often found in comedic poetry. Example : “ With the sheep in the fold and the cow in her stall. “

The choice of foot in a poem greatly influences its overall mood and rhythm, adding an essential layer of meaning.

The Power of Verse in Literature: Setting the Mood and Conveying Emotion

Verse is a powerful element in literature, particularly in the realm of poetry. Its rhythmic patterns can invoke deep emotions , paint vibrant images , and intensify the reader’s experience through the careful choice of words, rhyme, repetition, and meter.

• Consider the fragmented structure and disjointed imagery of T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land , reflecting the disillusionment of the post-World War I period.
• Conversely, Maya Angelou’s Still I Rise employs repetition, powerful imagery, and a triumphant tone to convey resilience and inner strength.

Verse Across Cultures and Time

Verse has been a significant medium for cultural messages, historical record-keeping, and storytelling. 

From the earliest known works of literature, such as the Epic of Gilgames h, the Iliad , and the Odyssey , the verse has carried cultural significance across generations. 

It served as the backbone for masterpieces in the Middle Ages, like Dante’s Divine Comedy and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales , exploring themes of morality, religion, and love.

Verse in English Literature

Delving into English literature, the verse has been an integral part of poetic expression since the earliest days of the written language. Renowned poets such as William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, and Robert Frost have brilliantly exploited verse’s expressive potential.

Shakespeare’s iambic pentameter , consisting of five pairs of unstressed and stressed syllables per line, is a shining example of his poetic mastery. 

Wordsworth and Frost also boasted unique styles, with Frost often using blank verse ( unrhyming iambic pentameter) and Wordsworth experimenting with various meters and forms. 

Furthermore, poets like Langston Hughes and W.B. Yeats wielded verse as a tool to influence political and social discourse, shaping public opinion and defining historical moments.

Verse in the Latin World

Shifting our lens to ancient Rome, Latin verse showcased its prominence in religious texts and literary works. 

Esteemed Latin poets like Virgil and Ovid, admired today for their skilled use of meter and form, highlight the timeless appeal of verse.

Verse in French Literature

Verse made its grand entry into French literature during the Middle Ages, with poets such as François Villon leading the way. 

The Renaissance witnessed Pierre de Ronsard’s contribution, paving the path for the French alexandrine , a twelve-syllable line, to become the standard form for French verse in the 17th century.

The chanson de geste , or song of deeds, is a medieval narrative poem that recounts the heroic deeds of legendary figures, such as Roland in The Song of Roland .

Charles Baudelaire’s The Flowers of Evil is a collection of lyric poems that delves into themes of beauty, despair, and moral decadence. Victor Hugo, another prominent French poet, wrote Les Contemplations , which serves as both a poetic and personal autobiography.

Verse in Italian Literature

In Italian literature, verse has been an influential element as well. Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy , a masterpiece of world literature, was written in terza rima , a distinctive rhyming pattern.

Another great Italian poet, Petrarch, composed a sequence of sonnets called Canzoniere , which has been admired for its lyricism and profound themes.

Verse in Japanese Literature

In Japanese literature, the verse form has taken unique shapes.

Haiku, a form of poetry composed of three lines and a syllabic structure of 5-7-5, has been celebrated for its ability to capture the essence of a moment in nature or a specific emotion.

The famous poet Matsuo Basho composed numerous haikus that have been admired for their brevity and profundity.

Another form of Japanese verse is the tanka , which consists of five lines and a syllabic pattern of 5-7-5-7-7. Historically, tanka has been used for various occasions—from personal expression to official communication.

Verse in Religious Contexts

Verse doesn’t restrict itself to literary texts alone. It also finds a significant presence in religious contexts. 

The Bible , for instance, employs verse in both the Old and New Testaments, hosting widely recognized examples such as the Psalms and Song of Solomon. 

These often express themes of religious devotion and spirituality, further underscoring the versatile application of verse.

Analyzing a Verse: Things to Consider

When analyzing a work of literature written in verse, it can be helpful to consider the author’s word choice, the poem’s structure, and the rhythm and rhyme scheme.

This will enable a deeper understanding of the mood, imagery, and emotions conveyed within the work.

Suppose you’re analyzing Robert Frost’s Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening . Note the use of iambic tetrameter, which gives the poem a musical quality, and the consistent rhyme scheme (AABA).

Observe how the repetition of certain phrases ( “And miles to go before I sleep” ) adds emphasis and contributes to the overall mood of the poem.

By focusing on these aspects, you gain insight into how verse lends emotional power to literary works.

Writing and Composing Verse

When creating verse, it is essential to understand the basic components and structure.

Tip 1: Master the Meter

Verses are made up of metrical units known as feet, with each foot comprising a set number of syllables. These rhythms give the verse a natural flow and cadence, setting a mood and tone for the reader.

Tip 2: Craft With Cohesion and Unity

In addition to mastering meter, writers should strive to achieve a sense of cohesion and unity in their verse.

This can be achieved through the use of rhyme schemes, which create a sense of connection and continuity between lines. Some common rhyme schemes are:

• AABB : Alternate lines have the same ending sounds
• ABAB : Every other line has the same ending sounds
• ABBA : The first and fourth lines rhyme with each other, and the second and third lines rhyme with each other

Tip 3: Enhance Complexity by Using Literary Devices

Writers should also consider incorporating literary devices such as alliteration, assonance , consonance, enjambment, and allusion to add depth and complexity to their verse.

These techniques serve to enhance the meaning and impact of the poem while also demonstrating the writer’s skill and creativity.

Tip 4: Find Your Voice and Style

Lastly, a crucial aspect of composing verse is finding one’s voice and style. Experimentation can be highly beneficial in this regard, as it allows writers to explore various forms, themes, and techniques.

Reading and analyzing the work of other poets can also provide inspiration and valuable lessons. An important quote to remember during this process is:

Ultimately, writing and composing verse requires a delicate balance between structure and creativity, with a strong focus on the author’s unique voice and style. Remember to:

• Develop an understanding of metrical structure.
• Employ literary devices to enhance complexity.
• Seek inspiration from other poets.
• Experiment with different forms, themes, and techniques.

Verse in Action: Living Examples

Using examples of verse in literature helps us to better comprehend what verse is and the ways it can be employed.

When readers are given tangible examples, such as those from Shakespeare, they can grasp the concept of verse much better.

Verses can be subdivided into several types, each with distinct features. We will now provide detailed examples for each type of verse, complete with analysis.

Rhymed verses follow a specific rhyme scheme, which can be observed in the following couplet from Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 :

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

The rhyme scheme in this example is AABB, with subsequent lines having end rhymes that follow the pattern.

Unrhymed but structured verse, frequently following iambic pentameter, that does not employ end rhyme. An example can be seen in Shakespeare’s Hamlet :

To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Despite not employing end rhyme, the lines maintain a structured rhythm, providing a poetic feel.

Verse without a specific structure or rhyme scheme. It allows poets to have more freedom when writing, as seen in Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself :

I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

Although there is no recognizable rhyme scheme or structured meter, the lines still convey a poetic quality.

Verse in Music and Song

In music and songwriting, the verse typically refers to the part of a song that contains its main storytelling elements.

The Power of Verses in Rap Music

One popular genre that heavily relies on verses as a core component is rap music. In rap songs, verses are used to showcase:

• Intricate wordplay
• Vivid storytelling
• Innovative rhyming schemes

Notable rappers such as Kendrick Lamar and Eminem have built their reputations on their skillful manipulation of verses, taking the art form to new heights.

Contrasting Verses and Choruses in Music

In contrast to verses, a song’s chorus is the highly memorable, repetitive part of the song, often offering a catchy melody or an emotionally charged refrain that helps to communicate the song’s central theme.

Within the framework of a song, verses and choruses typically alternate, with the verse providing variety and context, and the chorus offering a unifying, recognizable thread that helps listeners connect with the music.

The Role of Verses Across Different Music Genres

While verses are important across many musical genres, their role can differ significantly depending on the style of music.

Rock or Folk Music

In some musical genres, such as rock or folk music, verses might be less lyrically complex than in rap, with a greater focus on creating a mood or atmosphere to draw in the listener.

In pop music, verses typically exist to build tension and lay the groundwork for an impactful, ear-catching chorus.

Whether it’s through powerful storytelling, intricate wordplay, or simply setting the stage for a catchy melody, the verse is a crucial part of any song, providing the foundation on which memorable and successful music can be built.

Verse in Translation

Translating verse from one language to another can be a challenging process, as the translator must skillfully convey the meaning, style, and tone of the original text while also finding an appropriate and effective way of expressing these same qualities in the target language.

This often requires a delicate balance between maintaining the integrity of the source text and making necessary adaptations to ensure that the translation does not lose its intended impact.

Translating Classical Poetry

One practical example of verse translation can be seen in the works of classical poets, such as the Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer.

These epic poems have been translated into numerous languages, with each translator attempting to capture the essence of the original Greek text while adapting it to the linguistic and cultural context of their readership.

Fact: The Chinese poet Du Fu’s works have been translated into over 60 languages.

Choosing the Right Poetic Form in Translation

An essential aspect of verse translation is finding the appropriate poetic form in the target language that can best convey the original poem’s structure and rhythm.

Example : A sonnet in English typically consists of fourteen lines and a specific rhyme scheme; a translator must decide whether to maintain these features or adapt them to better suit the conventions of the target language’s poetry.

Cultural and Historical Considerations in Verse Translation

Understanding the cultural context and historical background of the original text is crucial when translating verse.

Certain concepts, allusions , or expressions may not have direct equivalents in the target language, and the translator must find creative ways to convey the intended meaning and preserve the original poem’s essence.

Example : A reference to a mythological figure in a Greek epic may require further explanation or adaptation to make it accessible to readers unfamiliar with Greek mythology.

Verse in Other Contexts

In addition to its traditional use in poetry and songs, verse also has a role in other artistic and cultural contexts. For example, verse can be found in theater and prose, highlighting its versatility and adaptability.

In theater, especially in plays from the Elizabethan era, verse plays a crucial role in conveying both the plot and the emotions of the characters.

One of the most famous examples of verse in theater is the works of William Shakespeare. His plays often include a mix of prose and verse, with the latter meant for more important or emotional scenes.

In fact, many of his well-known soliloquies, such as Hamlet’s “To be or not to be,” are written in verse.

Verse can also appear in prose, specifically in the form of embedded poetry. This occurs when a piece of poetry is incorporated into a larger prose narrative.

A prime example of this can be found in James Joyce’s novel Ulysses , in which the protagonist, Leopold Bloom, often recalls or composes verses throughout the storyline.

Embedded poetry allows authors to explore various ideas and themes, as well as provide a unique stylistic element to their works.

The Great Debate: Verse vs. Prose

Verse and prose are two distinctive forms of writing in literature, each with its own characteristics and purposes.

Verse consists of lines and stanzas and typically employs rhythm, rhyme, and meter.

Examples of verse include poetry, songs, and plays written in verse form, such as:

• Shakespeare’s sonnets
• Greek tragedies

On the other hand, prose refers to everyday written and spoken language that does not follow a strict metrical structure. This can include:

• Report writings
• Most non-fiction works

Some differences between verse and prose are:

Here are a few examples of verse and prose:

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? (Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18)

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times (Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities)

How to Identify Them: Tips

When trying to determine if a piece of writing is verse or prose, consider these tips:

• Tip 1: Look for line breaks and stanzas that indicate verse.
• Tip 2: Check if there is a consistent meter or rhyme scheme present in the text.
• Tip 3: For prose, observe the use of paragraphs and conventional sentence structures.

Remember that some works of literature, like William Shakespeare’s plays, can contain both verse and prose.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is verse used in a poem.

Verse is used in a poem to provide structure, rhythm, and sound. Some ways that verse can be employed include:

• Establishing a metrical pattern to convey tone or mood. • Using a rhyme scheme to create musicality and harmony. • Creating line breaks to emphasize specific words or ideas. • Varying stanza forms to highlight different themes or aspects of a poem.

Ultimately, verse serves as a foundation for a poem, allowing the poet to build upon its structure to express their thoughts and emotions effectively.

Can you give an example of verse in a song?

Song lyrics often feature verse structures similar to those found in poetry. Here’s an example of verse in the song “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen:

“ Now I’ve heard there was a secret chord/ That David played, and it pleased the Lord/ But you don’t really care for music, do you? “

Notice how the verse contains a metrical pattern and rhyme scheme. Song lyrics can be a great way to explore verse in a different context compared to traditional literature.

To sum it all up, verse holds an important place in the realm of literature. It provides a unique platform for authors to creatively present their thoughts and feelings, using rhythmic patterns and vibrant imagery.

Not only does verse help us grasp tales from yesteryears, but it also enables us to intimately experience the emotions encapsulated within them.

Appreciating verse offers a deeper understanding of the beauty and power words hold when artistically woven together.

Now that we’ve demystified verse, how about you give it a shot? It’s time to move from being mere spectators to becoming creators ourselves. Don your poet’s hat, and let’s get writing!

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Jessa Claire

Literary Devices

Literary devices, terms, and elements, definition of free verse.

Free verse is a type of poetry that does not contain patterns of rhyme or meter . Free verse is considered an open form of poetry, as opposed to poetry written in structure or form, and tends to follow natural speech patterns and rhythms. While some rhyme and rhythm may occur in free verse poems, the poet does not adhere to strict patterns. However, this not does imply that free verse has no guiding principles. Indeed, free verse generally contains poetic lines and poetic imagery that distinguish it from prose .

Difference Between Free Verse and Blank Verse

While “ blank verse ” sounds like it could be very similar to the definition of free verse, there is one key difference. Blank verse is written with strict poetic meter, usually in iambic pentameter , without rhyme at the end of the line. Free verse, on the other hand, contains no such adherence to a regular rhythm while also maintaining an absence of rhyme scheme.

Common Examples of Free Verse

While free verse is technically only a term that applies to poetry, it is very closely associated to natural speech patterns. Many famous speeches have excerpts that could be turned into free verse poems. For example, consider the following excerpt from Winston Churchill’s famous 1940 speech to House of Commons:

We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender…

Due to the poetic use of imagery and the repetitive tool of anaphora , Churchill’s speech could easily be turned into a free verse poem with the addition of enjambment .

Significance of Free Verse in Literature

Free verse has been a growing trend in poetry over the last one hundred years or so, to the extent that it is now difficult to find much contemporary poetry being written in any other format. There were some free verse poems written before the 1800s, especially in other languages. In English, however, the first famous practitioners of free verse were nineteenth-century authors such as Walt Whitman and Matthew Arnold. They later influenced free verse poets such as Allen Ginsberg, William Carlos Williams, and Ezra Pound. Most poets now eschew rhyme and strict rhythm in favor of the more open possibilities of free verse.

Examples of Free Verse in Literature

I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. I loafe and invite my soul, I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.

(“Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman)

Walt Whitman was one of the early masters of free verse in the English language, and inspired a myriad of poets after him. In this famous example of free verse, “Song of Myself,” Whitman employs several other poetic techniques such as frequent repetition and unique turns of phrase. In just this short excerpt we can see the repetition of several words—“myself,” “assume,” and “loafe”—as well as the anaphora of beginning several lines with the word “I.” Whitman is able to create his own poetic form even while shedding previous notions of form behind him.

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix, angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night…

(“Howl” by Allen Ginsberg)

Allen Ginsberg is one of those poets who took Whitman’s “Song of Myself” as inspiration, and created his free verse poem “Howl” with similar constructs. There is no rhyme at all in Ginsberg’s poem, and certainly no strict meter. Ginsberg instead uses long melodic lines that follow the natural patterns of speech. He employs some repetition in this poem further on by starting most new poetic images with the word “who.” By breaking free of earlier formal traditions, Ginsberg creates a poem with its own unique energy.

so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens

(“The Red Wheelbarrow” by William Carlos Williams)

William Carlos Williams is particularly famous for his use of free verse, and this poem “The Red Wheelbarrow” is often taught as exemplary of a new minimalist aesthetic. There is so little to the poem—not even capital letters or punctuation—that some have wondered whether it can be called a poem at all. Williams certainly makes no use of rhyme or rhythm. However, the simple images and the open question of how “so much depends” on the red wheelbarrow create a strong impression on most readers. Williams was able to create a sublime and poetic piece out of the most basic of material.

First the air is blue and then it is bluer and then green and then black I am blacking out and yet my mask is powerful it pumps my blood with power the sea is another story the sea is not a question of power I have to learn alone to turn my body without force in the deep element.

(“Diving into the Wreck” by Adrienne Rich)

Adreinne Rich’s beautiful poem “Diving into the Wreck” is a long example of free verse. She uses simple language to explore the difficult concept of human relations. She also employs an extended metaphor of diving into a shipwreck as a corollary to understanding what went wrong in a relationship. In this excerpt, Rich the key poetic techniques of repetition, enjambment, and imagery to propel the reader forward and examine her themes. Like in all free verse, Rich uses no rhyme or strict rhythm.

My mother never forgave my father for killing himself, especially at such an awkward time and in a public park, that spring when I was waiting to be born. She locked his name in her deepest cabinet and would not let him out, though I could hear him thumping. When I came down from the attic with the pastel portrait in my hand of a long-lipped stranger with a brave moustache and deep brown level eyes, she ripped it into shreds without a single word and slapped me hard. In my sixty-fourth year I can feel my cheek still burning.

(“The Portrait” by Stanley Kunitz)

Of all of these examples of free verse, “The Portrait” by Stanley Kunitz is the most reminiscent of natural speech. Kunitz does not use many traditional poetic techniques, such as repetition or obvious metaphor. Yet the subtle metaphors in this free verse poem are what make it so memorable. Kunitz purportedly can “hear” his father “thumping” and later, in the heartbreaking conclusion, can “feel” his cheek “still burning.” Of course, Kunitz cannot literally hear or feel these things, but the subtle shifts in perspective from quite literal to metaphorical are what make the poem stand out.

Test Your Knowledge of Free Verse

1. Which of the following statements is the best free verse definition? A. Free verse is a type of poetry written in iambic pentameter that contains no rhyme scheme. B. Free verse is a type of poetry that contains no rhyme scheme or metrical rhythm. C. Free verse is a type of poetry written with a strict rhyme scheme yet no rhythmical pattern.

2. Based on these excerpts, which of the following poems by Robert Frost is an example of free verse? A. 

Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow.

(“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”) B. 

I have been one acquainted with the night. I have walked out in rain—and back in rain. I have outwalked the furthest city light.

(“Acquainted with the Night”) C.

When I see birches bend to left and right Across the lines of straighter darker trees, I like to think some boy’s been swinging them.

(“Birches”)

3. Is it possible to find contemporary poetry written in free verse? A. Yes, this is the predominant form in which poetry is now written. B. Yes, but it is uncommon. C. No, contemporary poetry eschews free verse in favor of strict rhyme and rhythm patterns.

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Top Tips for Writing a Novel in Verse

Have you ever thought about writing a novel in verse? Carnegie-nominated author and poet Louisa Reid shares her advice.

My fourth novel in verse, Activist , is the story of one girl who won’t stop speaking out against injustice, no matter the consequences. As such, it’s a book about the power of words to save and heal; it’s about the importance of the individual voice, and the hope engendered by finding your words and beliefs echoed by others. Poetry is a powerfully political genre, so the narrative of Activist  lent itself very well to the verse form.  

Poets and novelists have long theorised the differences and demands of their forms. But hybridity has always been acknowledged as important. Virginia Woolf commented that, “ the best prose is that which is most full of poetry ,” whilst T.S. Eliot believed, “ to have the virtues of good prose is the first and minimum requirements of a good poem .” The verse novel acknowledges the beautiful debt each form owes to the other and for me it’s about taking the best of both worlds, throwing some of the power of drama in for good measure and riding the wave.

If you’d like to try writing a novel in verse, here are some things to think about:

1. Poetry is there for the writing 

It’s the form most often charged with elitism, but in my opinion of the fundamental aims of a verse novel should be to be as inclusive as possible. Poetry should be as democratic as any other text. Remember: you’re allowed to do this. No one can judge you for it. No one owns poetry.

2. Inspire language into your life

Read poetry. Read it in your head, or read it aloud, have it read to you, or read to others. Relish and appreciate wordplay, alliteration, assonance, rhyme and allow yourself be caught up in the rhythms and story of narrative verse, the beats and bars of spoken word, the  cadences and lyricism of poets from across the ages. I go back again and again to Tennyson and Eliot, Shakespeare and Hardy. But then I listen to George the Poet and Tony Walsh, read Nikita Gill and Manjeet Mann. Poetry of all kinds and places and people is a wonderful resource and seeking out the power and beauty of language and recognising its potential is a great way to begin.

3. Make each moment count

I don’t believe that there are any hard and fast rules for writing in verse; you can use one perspective, or multiple; write historical or contemporary; use different forms (such as tercets or sonnets) or write in free verse; you can use calligrams and concrete poetry. You can be as free and experimental as you wish. But ultimately a story must be told, and each verse in your novel needs to earn its place. After all, one of the beauties of this form is its brevity. So where to begin? Some verse novelists begin by writing the story in prose and then choosing their key scenes and locating the images that will drive the work. I prefer to let the character take over and do the telling for me, seeing the novel through their eyes, as if it is a series of moments, snapshots of time, and ensuring each verse captures that particular emotion and event in as precise and condensed and lyrical a way as possible. 

As with any writing, your voice should be authentic and distinctive. How will you make that distinctive voice a “poetic” one, too? If your character is a young person, then their voice must reflect their time and place, their individuality and interests. You might think that’s at odds with “poetry” or poetic language. I’d argue that young people are closely in touch with the potential of language and as in love with words as any adult (who didn’t obsess over song lyrics as a teenager, writing them in tip-ex on their school books and bags?). The close first-person point of view so often used by verse novelists enables a powerfully subjective narrative, where the text can be a place of revelation and confession, joy and horror, dream and reality.

5. A hybrid form

The verse novel is a wonderful mix of genres and one of the things I love about it is the potential for drama. My YA protagonists are all facing challenges and experiencing the world in brutal ways. They’re young people who need to speak out against injustice for the sake of their own survival. Court rooms, boxing rings, school room riots: I set up scenes where not only is the finding of their voice of paramount importance, but also where conflict is inevitable. The subjectivity of poetic language and a plot driven by high stakes are powerful propulsive forces. Ultimately the verse novel enables the writer to cut to the chase. To say what matters and to say that with your chest. 

Louisa Reid is the author of the YA verse novels Gloves Off , nominated for the Carnegie Medal, and Wrecked, which was selected for both the Read for Empathy collection and National Poetry Day. Her debut adult novel, The Poet , was published this year by Doubleday to critical acclaim. Louisa Reid has spent most of her life reading. When Louisa’s not reading she’s writing stories, or imagining writing them at least. As an English teacher, her favourite part of the job is sharing her love of reading and writing with her pupils. Louisa lives with her family in the north-west of England and is proud to call a place near Manchester home. Follow Louisa on Twitter and Instagram .

Activist is published by Guppy Books on 13th October | for readers age 14+ | Paperback | £7.99. Follow Guppy Books on Twitter and Instagram .

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What Is Free Verse? Definition, Usage, and Literary Examples

Free verse definition.

Free verse  (furEE VURHss) is a form of  poetry  that does not utilize regular patterns of  rhyme ,  rhythm , or  meter . Although rhyme and rhythm may occur, there is no standard regulating them to which the poet must adhere. Free verse  poems  tend to mimic the patterns of natural speech, as well as build upon and play with flights of  imagery  and repeated sounds.

The term  free verse  is a literal translation of the identical French form  vers libre  (1880s), whose adherents no longer wanted to be constrained by the restrictions of the alexandrine form. The term was adapted into English and American poetry in the early 1900s by  modernist  poets.

Free Verse and Other Verse Types

When it comes to literary tools such as rhyme and meter, poetry can be divided into three types of verse: formal, blank, and free.

Formal Verse

Poems written in formal verse are constructed according to strict rules for rhyme and meter. Consider  Shakespeare ’s  sonnets . In  “Sonnet 29,”  he writes:

When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,

I all alone beweep my outcast state,

And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,

And look upon myself and curse my fate

These lines are written in formal verse. They follow a strict metrical pattern (iambic pentameter) and a  rhyme scheme  of ABAB.

Blank Verse

This type of verse uses meter but not rhyme. Generally, blank verse was written in iambic pentameter. Plays by Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, as well as John Milton’s famous epic poem  Paradise Lost ,  were written in blank verse .

More modern poets, like W. B. Yeats and Robert Frost, often wrote in blank verse as well. For example, in “Mending Wall,” Frost writes:

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,

That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,

And spills the upper boulders in the sun;

And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.

These lines are all written in iambic pentameter, but they do not rhyme, making them blank verse.

As discussed, poetry that doesn’t use rhyme or meter is considered free verse. While rhyme or metrical patterns may occasionally occur in a free verse poem, the poem is does not sustain them as consistent patterns.

Most modern poetry is written in free verse. For example, National Book Award finalist  Carmen Giménez Smith ’s poem “ Happy Trigger ” uses short lines, surprising line breaks, and strong  imagery  to engage readers instead of relying on meter or uniform line breaks. In her first stanza, she writes:

Off-season and in

the burnt forest

of my nightgown, a feral

undergrowth that marks

me as burial site—

to be still enough or

just enough.

The off-kilter line breaks, jagged lines, repetition of the word  enough , and surprising and bleak imagery keep the reader’s interest. Her poem is unsettling in topic and tone, and her choice to write in free verse, rather than employing the more soothing patterns of rhyme and meter, adds to the poem’s disturbing power.

Why Poets Write in Free Verse

Poets write in free verse because it allows for more freedom.  Rhyme  and  meter  are powerful tools, but they also dictate the form a  poem  takes. Many poets prefer to allow their imagination to unfold without needing to shape their words to pre-set rules.

Free verse allows the poem to choose words and line breaks based on personal preference, thematic emphasis, or aesthetic interests rather than needing their diction and syntax to adhere to specific sound choices or syllabic stress patterns.

How Free Verse Became Popular

Free verse has been popular for a long time. Although the form seems modern, it has a long, rich tradition.

Although the term  free verse  was not in use at the time, the principles of the form were initially popularized by Walt Whitman (1819–1892). His long and vivid unmetered lines expressed enthusiasm for the world around him and ultimately influenced Allan Ginsburg and the  Beat poets  of the 1950s.

The English and American poets who were influenced by free verse in the 1900s included modernist and  imagist  poets such as T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, Marianne Moore, Carl Sandburg, and Wallace Stevens. Many of the poets of the 1920s  Harlem Renaissance , including Langston Hughes, also wrote in free verse, as did confessional poets from the ‘50s and ‘60s, such as Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, and Adrienne Rich, and New York School poets from the same era, such as Frank O’Hara, John Ashbery, and James Schuyler.

Since the 1970s, if not sooner, the default form of American poetry has been free verse, and it is now rare to see contemporary poets who consistently writing in formal or closed-form verse.

Notable Free Verse Poets

• Matthew Arnold, “ Dover Beach ”
• John Ashbery, “ Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror ”
• Gwendolyn Brooks, “ when you have forgotten Sunday: the love story ”
• Lucille Clifton, “ mulberry fields ”
• Hart Crane, “ Voyages ”
• e. cummings, “ i carry your heart with me ”
• S. Eliot, “ The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock ”
• Allen Ginsburg, “ A Supermarket in California ”
• Joy Harjo, “ A Map to the Next World ”
• Langston Hughes, “ I, Too ”
• June Jordan, “ Poem about My Rights ”
• Li-Young Lee, “ This Room and Everything in It ”
• Ada Limón, “ How to Triumph Like a Girl ,”
• Audre Lorde, “ Coal ”
• Marianne Moore, “ Poetry ”
• Frank O’Hara, “ Having a Coke with You ”
• Mary Oliver, “ Journey ”
• Sylvia Plath, “ Tulips ”
• Ezra Pound, “ The Return ”
• Adrienne Rich, “ Planetarium ”
• Carl Sandburg, “ Chicago ”
• Vijay Seshadri, “ The Disappearances ”
• Anne Sexton, “ Winter Colony ”
• Wallace Stevens, “ Sunday Morning ”
• Walt Whitman, “ Crossing Brooklyn Ferry ”
• William Carlos Williams, “ The Red Wheelbarrow ”

Examples of Free Verse in Literature

1. Walt Whitman, “Sometimes with One I Love”

Whitman’s short love poem, “Sometimes with One I Love,” reads in its entirety:

Sometimes with one I love I fill myself with rage for fear I effuse unreturn’d love,

But now I think there is no unretrun’d love, the pay is certain one way or another

(I loved a certain person ardently and my love was not return’d,

Yet out of that I have written these songs).

Whitman’s flowing lines do not follow any formal metrical pattern, nor do they rhyme. Instead, they freely follow the twists and turns of Whitman’s thoughts, creating an expressive and honest power.

2. Louise Erdrich,  “Windigo”

In the opening stanza to her poem, Erdrich speaks through the voice of a windigo—a ravenous winter spirit:

You knew I was coming for you, little one,

when the kettle jumped into the fire.

Towels flapped on the hooks,

And the dog crept off, groaning,

To the deepest part of the woods.

This free verse poem is also a  dramatic monologue , as the persona speaking is the windigo rather than Erdrich herself. The narrative that unfolds is a version of an indigenous Chippewa story about a windigo, which Erdrich elects to relay through the monster’s own voice.

3. Hafizah Geter,  “Today Is a Photograph”

Geter begins her poem with the following lines:

All the children

my sister has left

kneeling in a garden.

It is an orange spider

crushed beneath their teeth,

becoming heirs

to each other’s hungers.

This poem continues for another 23 stanzas, all written in  couplets . They help organize the flow of the poem, but the freedom of not following set meter gives the poem fluidity.

4. Chen Chen,  “When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities”

Chen Chen’s poem is written in free verse couplets that utilize the power of repetition to create a pattern.

To be a good

ex/current friend for R. To be one last

inspired way to get back at R. To be relationship

advice for L. To be advice

for my mother. To be a more comfortable

hospital bed for my mother. To be

no more hospital beds. To be, in my spare time,

America for my uncle, who wants to be China

Although Chen Chen’s poem does not adhere to any rigid metrical pattern or rhyme scheme, he creates a cumulative power through his repetitions of  to be .

Further Resources on Free Verse

The Academy of American Poets published an excellent  overview  of the history of free verse by poet Edward Hirsch.

Book Riot has a wonderful list of 50 free verse  poems .

The late poet Mary Oliver has a great chapter on free verse (“Verse That Is Free”) in her book  A Poetry Handbook .

Poet Marjorie Perloff’s excellent  essay  “After Free Verse: The New Non-Linear Poetries” explores free verse.

Related Terms

• Rhyme Scheme

Poetry Programming, Writing Workshops: Home: Poetry Society of New York Writing Workshop with Moncho Alvarado

Celebrate national poetry month with nypl and poetry society of new york.

This April, join us for writing workshops across the three boroughs, uplifting poetry of all types; free verse, form, and everything in between!

Home: Writing Workshop with Moncho Alvarado In this workshop, participants will have the opportunity to focus on poetry writing prompts centering the idea of place and ‘home’. Some works deal with a specific time and location, while others focus on a more socially-constructed view of place through the lenses of pop culture and identity. In the end, we hope the prompt will be generative and deep, and will inspire attendees to write and perform theirpoem.

This workshop is in-person.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR

Moncho Alvarado aka @moncholapoet  is a sister in residence in air, a Cihuayollotl trans Xicanx poet, translator, visual artist, and educator. She is the author of Greyhound Americans (Saturnalia Books 2022), which was the winner of the 2020 Saturnalia Book Prize, selected by Diane Seuss. She has been published in Poets.org, and other publications. She has fellowships and residencies from LAMBDA Literary, The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, Troika House, and others. Alvarado is a two-time Pushcart Prize Nominee and has been featured at Brooklyn Museum, Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation, Time Square Arts, PEN America, to name a few. Currently, she is working on a trans historical novel in verse and lives in Queens with her partner, cuddly dog, & meowling cat. monchoalvarado.com

ABOUT POETRY SOCIETY OF NEW YORK

The Poetry Society of New York has a simple mission: to redefine and reestablish poetry's essential position in the culture-at-large. The society accomplishes this mission by: a) creating new models for the presentation of poetry, b) fostering vibrant, progressive poetry communities across the globe, c) cultivating relationships in the worlds of art, literature, design and business, and d) presenting the works of New York City poets to the world. The New York City poetry world has largely isolated itself to a small & fragmented circle. The Poetry Society of New York moves through & opens up that circle to unite the community of makers with the community of appreciators in fresh and unconventional ways.

• Audience: Adults