Genre Studies- Unit- III Free Verse Vs Blank Verse

 Free Verse Vs Blank Verse

            Blank Verse and free verse are two important and most common mediums of expression in poetry. Blank verse is written in regular metrical but unrhymed lines. Poetry of Free verse has no rhyme or rhythm. The main difference between blank verse and free verse has no metrical patterns, rhyme or any other musical pattern whereas blank verse is written in regular metrical patterns.

Blank verse

·         It is written in Iambic pentameter lines.

·         But there is no rhyming if you examine the last words of each line.

·         All lines have ten syllable is unstressed and the second one is stressed.

·         It has a rising rhythm.

·         Most poets of English literature have used blank verse, but Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey is said to have used this blank verse first in his lyrics during 16^th Century.

·         Later Shakespeare, Spenser, Sidney, Milton, Marlowe, John Donne, keats and others used in their poetry.  

Free Verse

·         No use of consistent meter, rhyme or any other pattern.

·         Though there is no meter, it follows the natural rhythm of speech.

·         It gives a greater freedom of poets to choose words without bothering about the rhyme and rhythm.

·         It is commonly used in contemporary modern poetry.

·         The exponents of free verse are Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Ezra Pound, John Ashbury, etc.