Free Verse Examples

When we think of poetry, we think of lines that rhyme and that have a specific rhythm. However, there are poems that do not rhyme and that do not have a steady rhythm. This type of poetry is called free verse.

When writing free verse, the poet can use rhythm or rhyme-when it suits the poem. The poet also uses other types of literary devices-figures of speech and alliteration or assonance. Free verse just "frees" the poet from having to stick to a specific rhyme scheme or rhythm.

From Walt Whitman's "A Noiseless, Patient Spider"

A noiseless patient spider, I mark'd where on a little promontory it stood isolated, Mark'd how to explore the vacant vast surrounding, It launch'd forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself, Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.

Carl Sandberg's "Fog"

The fog comes

on little cat feet.

It sits looking

over harbor and city

on silent haunches

and then moves on.

Nikki Giovanni's "Winter Poem"

once a snowflake fell

on my brow and i loved

it so much and i kissed

it and it was happy and called its cousins

and brothers and a web

of snow engulfed me then

i reached to love them all

and i squeezed them and they became

a spring rain and i stood perfectly

still and was a flower