pathetic.org members may categorize their work so that visitors to the site can find a particular type of poetry more easily. Because a piece may fit in more than one category, you may come across a particular poem several times. Whether you are looking for poetry written in a particular style, or a poem on a certain topic, you can browse through the categories listed here to find a variety of works that meet the criteria.
Free Verse: A fluid form which conforms to no set rules of traditional versification. The free in free verse refers to the freedom from fixed patterns of meter and rhyme, but writers of free verse employ familiar poetic devices such as assonance, alliteration, imagery, caesura, figures of speech etc., and their rhythmic effects are dependent on the syllabic cadences emerging from the context . The term is often used in its French language form, vers libre. Walt Whitman's By the Bivouac's Fitful Flame is an example of a poem written in free verse.
NOTE: Although as ancient as Anglo-Saxon verse, free verse was first employed "officially" by French poets of the symbolistic movement and became the prevailing poetic form at the climax of romanticism. In the 20th century it was the chosen medium of the imagists and was widely adopted by American and English poets.
NOTE: The one characteristic that distinguishes free verse from rhythmical prose is that free verse has line breaks which divide the content into uneven rhythmical units.
(See also polyphonic prose, polyrhythmic verse)
