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free verse

free verse

The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. | 2008 | Copyright

free verse term loosely used for rhymed or unrhymed verse made free of conventional and traditional limitations and restrictions in regard to metrical structure. Cadence, especially that of common speech, is often substituted for regular metrical pattern. Free verse is a literal translation of the French vers libre, which originated in late 19th-century France among poets, such as Arthur Rimbaud and Jules Laforgue , who sought to free poetry from the metrical regularity of the alexandrine . The term has also been applied by modern literary critics to the King James translation of the Bible, particularly the Song of Solomon and the Psalms, to certain poems of Matthew Arnold , and to the irregular poetry of Walt Whitman 's Leaves of Grass. The form is also closely associated with English and American poets of the 20th cent. who sought greater liberty in verse structure, including Ezra Pound , T. S. Eliot , William Carlos Williams , Carl Sandburg , and Marianne Moore .

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free verse

The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature | 2003 | | Copyright

free verse, a term loosely used from the early years of the 20th cent. to describe many forms of irregular, syllabic, or unrhymed verse, freed from the traditional demands of metre: also known as vers libre. The origins of free verse have been variously described, but its widespread adoption in English is commonly associated with Imagism. Practitioners have included poets as varied as Rilke, T. S. Eliot, Pound, and D. H. Lawrence.
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MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "free verse." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "free verse." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-freeverse.html

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "free verse." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-freeverse.html

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Free Verse

The Oxford Companion to American Literature | 1995 | | Copyright

Free Verse, (Vers Libre), poetry without a fixed metrical pattern, having a loosely organized rhythm. It is to be found in the work of some 19th‐century American poets, e.g. Whitman and Stephen Crane, but it has been commonly employed only since World War I, its earlier users including the Imagists, Sandburg, Masters, Pound, and E.E. Cummings.
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James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Free Verse." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Free Verse." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O123-FreeVerse.html

James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Free Verse." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O123-FreeVerse.html

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free verse

World Encyclopedia | 2005 | Copyright

free verse Verse with no regular metre and no apparent form, relying primarily on cadence. The unsystematized rhythm is close to that of prose. Early users were Walt Whitman and Arthur Rimbaud. It became common in the 20th century.
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free verse

The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English | 2009 | Copyright

free verse • n. poetry that does not rhyme or have a regular meter.Also called vers libre.

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