Blank Verse (definition from the book): Unrhymed iambic pentameter. It was used by Shakespeare and other Elizabethan dramatists because iambic meter was closet to the natural rhythms of English speech.
Free Verse (definition from the book): Poetry written by poets who felt that they had to break free of traditional poetic forms. Often free verses uses colloquial speech patterns and breath pauses to shape the poetic line, and it usually is unrhymed.
Here is an example of a Blank Verse:
Site of examples: http://www.poeticterminology.net/07-blank-verse.htm
Example of Blank Verse
The Ball Poem
by
John Berryman
by
John Berryman
What is the boy now, who has lost his ball,
What, what is he to do? I saw it go
Merrily bouncing, down the street, and then
Merrily over-there it is in the water!
What, what is he to do? I saw it go
Merrily bouncing, down the street, and then
Merrily over-there it is in the water!
Here is an example of a Free Verse:
Site of examples: http://www.poeticterminology.net/24-free-verse.htm
Example of Free Verse
Song of Myself
by
Walt Whitman
by
Walt Whitman
I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
I loaf and invite my soul,
I lean and loaf at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
I loaf and invite my soul,
I lean and loaf at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.
The interesting thing is that poets like Walt Whitman, who chose not to rhyme, created their own rhythms via anaphora and by making sure that their lines were broken into equal syllabus and/or pauses.
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