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.
(Source: Dictionary of Poetic Terms, Pathetic.org)
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