Anyone who spends any time with my writing will quickly see that a lot of my poetry looks like prose, and a lot of my prose sounds like poetry. Some of this poetry that looks like prose (that is, the poetry that doesn't have consistent rhyming schemes) is blank verse, and some is free verse.
Blank verse is non-rhyming but contains a consistent metre. This is the case in poems such as North, which is strictly contained in six syllables per line.
Blank verse is non-rhyming but contains a consistent metre. This is the case in poems such as North, which is strictly contained in six syllables per line.
North
when I step in the room
my compass points to you
incontrovertible
a lodestone draw on me
I feel you when you’re near
unerring cardinal
when I step in the room
my compass points to you
incontrovertible
a lodestone draw on me
I feel you when you’re near
unerring cardinal
Free verse is non-rhyming and does not contain a consistent metre. This doesn't mean that the poetry is entirely without structure, however. Addition of line breaks within a poem can be used to create emphasis on specific words, to inform a reader to take a breath, to create a specific emotive reaction, to force the reader to see the words with unusual stresses, or to fulfill a syllabic pattern that has meaning to the writer.
The free-verse poem Storm Clouds at Dusk includes no punctuation or capitalisation, but the reader is still able to see the pauses that punctuation would normally provide. The reader is also able to create new iterations of meaning by imagining breaks in the text in other locations.
...grey-blue of pale slate
at any other time
but you turn to me
storm clouds at dusk
when you smile...
The free-verse poem Storm Clouds at Dusk includes no punctuation or capitalisation, but the reader is still able to see the pauses that punctuation would normally provide. The reader is also able to create new iterations of meaning by imagining breaks in the text in other locations.
...grey-blue of pale slate
at any other time
but you turn to me
storm clouds at dusk
when you smile...