What Makes a Free Verse Poem

This poetry form is more than line breaks in prose.

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What exactly is “free verse” poetry?

Free verse poetry can be very confusing for people who may not be writers of poetry, or who may be more familiar with metered and rhymed poetry. At first glance, free verse poetry can appear to be mere line breaks in a passage of prose, but it is so much more than this.

The lack of clear “rules” in free verse poetry leaves the structure, meter, cadence, all up to the poet rather than a given structure of the poem. Therefore, the outcome can vary from poem to poem, poet’s style to poet’s style. There are, however, a few things that are common to poetry, still present in free verse poems, that can help to distinguish between a structured piece of prose and an actual free verse poem.

Let’s analyze free verse poetry a bit so that you can be both more familiar with the form and more confident in your ability to write it.

Free verse poetry, like other forms of poetry, often contains a “lofty” or more “poetic” language. The fewest words possible are used to convey the deepest meaning.

If you are writing a piece of prose or an essay, you are often using a more methodical way of “speaking” through your writing that conveys story, information, or a message.

When utilizing free verse as a way to tell the same story, relay the same information, or bring a message to your readers, you will do so in a manner that is less wordy and with words that carry meaning differently.

For example:

Prose —

The man went out on the street on a snowy day and hailed a taxi. He was tired. He’d already given up on meeting with friends or having any kind of Christmas celebrations for the evening. Perhaps, he’d just go home.

Now the same prose with line breaks —

The second clearly appears to be more like a free verse poem. But There are too many words and too few “poetic” ones. The language is clear but has no depth, no “poetic” experience for the reader.

Let’s take the same story and make it more poetic —

Snow fell, chilled his cheeks and hands. Taxi lights, an amber glow, rimmed in white. He lifted a hand hailing a passage home, loneliness waiting wrapped by the tree.

Forgive my quick and imperfect rendition of the prose into free verse, but it serves the purpose of showing the difference between prose broken by line breaks and the more scenic, delicate, poetic description of a moment in time. A snapshot, if you will, in less “explaining” language, with a bit more interesting words and a bit of mystery. Free verse poetry will leave the work of the story in the mind of the reader to decipher.

“ Poetic language, for example, refers to a more artistic form of ordinary language. While the goal of using ordinary language is simply to communicate a message, the goal of using poetic language is to convey a deeper meaning, feeling or image to one’s audience. It purposefully includes imagery and figurative language to create this effect.” — Study.com

Another aspect of free verse poetry is the use of poetic device. Not all free verse poems will contain this, but it is common and some would argue important to include in well-written free verse poems.

The use of metaphor, alliteration, assonance, imagery (my personal favorite), and other poetic devices is clearly important in the construction of poetry, although to what extent they are used is up to the writer. Prose, to some degree uses these as well, but usually to a lesser and less noticeable degree. In prose these devices may add to the work, but they do not carry it. In poetry, poetic devices give the poem its crucial layers of meaning.

Learning about poetic device will strengthen all of your poetry, whether or not you choose to write in a classic form, or the more contemporary free verse style. I would strongly argue that imagery is crucial to setting free verse apart from broken prose, but this is in my poetic opinion.

Melissa Brinks in an article entitled “The 20 Poetic Devices You Must Know” discusses some of the most used poetic devices and warns that “One important thing to remember is that literary devices, like spices, are great in moderation, but overpowering if overused,” a sentiment with which I wholeheartedly agree. I recommend saving this article and others like it to use as resources to explore, practice, and deliberately begin to incorporate into your work.

Used effectively, poetic devices can set your free verse poetry apart from your prose writing in such a way that the reader will have a deeper experience, searching the words for the layers of meaning that build poetry, word by word, line by line. Incorporating metaphor opens multiple interpretations, while using imagery-rich phrases will function like stepping stones in a greater vision.

Which brings me to the third important component of free verse poetry.

Free verse poetry is usually a deeper sensory and/or emotional experience for the reader that is intentional.

Often writers intend for their prose to do this as well, but it is more crucial in the world of poetry.

I often tell my clients (as a poetry editor) that when you finish reading a poem, you should be able to close your eyes and see something, possibly and hopefully also feel something. An effective poem evokes a sensory and emotional reaction from the reader by:

Brief phrasing that gives the reader an interesting or emotional “vision”
Descriptive yet concise phrasing that brings a scene to life in few words; scents, sounds, the seasons/nature, an event or experience involving the subject(s) of the poem
Interesting word combinations that carry emotional or sensory “weight”

A bit on meter

Free verse poetry may not have clear rules to determine where you put your line breaks, stanza breaks, punctuation, rhymes (if used), or set meter, there is still a musicality or cadence that may come and go through the work.

The poem should have a pleasant and smooth rhythm that “sounds right.” This cannot be clearly explained except to say that if you read the poem out loud, certain syllables or words that “stick out” should be edited to fit the flow of the work better. Oftentimes when a free verse poem is criticized or accused of “not being a real poem” it is because the “flow” of the poem has these places that are out of sync. Or because the line breaks do not support the rhythm in which the poem should move. Checking for these metrical errors when editing will help to solidify the poem’s form as free verse and strengthen the piece.

(Author’s interjection — Enjambment is an important concept to understand when it comes to line breaks. How you utilize your line breaks will determine the urgency, pausing, and flow of your poem.)

As a free verse poem writer, you may find yourself defending your work, despite your best work, your best talent and efforts. The final decision about whether or not your poem can be classified as free verse is totally up to you. You say it is, so it is.

But incorporating a more intentional, deliberate, polished form will lift your poems and make you a better poet.

I encourage you to study some of the famous free verse poems, paying special attention to the qualities I’ve outlined above. See how they use language, movement, and device to construct their poems that have stood the test of time. (Walt Whitman, T.S. Eliot, and Emily Dickinson, and Langston Hughes all helped to make this form popular.)

Christina Ward 🎄 is a poet, poetry editor, and the author of “organic,” a Fiddleheads & Floss poetry collection, vol. 1. Her work has been featured in several anthologies, both online and in print.

She thanks Bryan Havoc for encouraging her to write this article.