DEFINITION OF FREE VERSE:
Free verse also known as “vers
libre” is a modern literary device adopted by the 19th and 20th
century poets. It is called “free verse” because here the poets are free to use
the words as they like. They are not bound by any fixed norms of writing
poetry. Robert Frost once commented that writing free verse was like
"playing tennis without a net."
Walt Whitman, an American poet is considered the father of FREE VERSE in English poetry. He published ‘Leaves of Grass’ in 1855 which contained free verse poetry.
In traditional poetry, the poets used to make use of various meters and rhyming patterns in order to bring rhythm and melody in poetry. But 19th century onwards, the modern poets started using free verse in their poetry.
TRADITIONAL POETRY:
“Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more.
Men were deceivers
ever,
One foot in sea, and one on shore,
To one thing constant never.
Then sigh not so, but let them go,
And be you blithe and
bonny,
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into hey nonny, nonny.”
MODERN POETRY:
“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 …”
FEATURES OF FREE VERSE:
1.
No regular meter
2.
No rhyming pattern
3.
Use of natural rhythmic words and phrases
EXAMPLES OF FREE VERSE:
Carl Sandburg’s poem
‘Fog’
"The fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on."
MAJOR EXPONENTS OF FREE VERSE:
Walt
Whitman, T. E. Hulme, F. S. Flint, Sylvia Plath, T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound etc.
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