Free Verse
Poetry that abandons regular meter and rhyme in favor of natural speech rhythms.
Free verse follows no fixed metrical pattern or rhyme scheme, shaping its music through line breaks, cadence, and repetition instead. Writers use it to sound spontaneous and modern and to fit form closely to feeling. Freedom from set rules puts more weight on the poet’s ear.
Example
Whitman’s long, unmetered, cataloging lines expand and contract with his thought, giving the poem its sprawling, breath-driven energy.
Song of Myself · Walt Whitman