as in poetry
verse that does not rhyme and does not have a regular rhythm
The author's free verse has a unique rhythmic intensity.
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Recent Examples of free verse
Like family feuds, squabbles among poets are too tedious to recount, but Wiman remembers being accused of commissioning too much prose, of privileging formalism over free verse, and of publishing vicious reviews and vacuous poetry.
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Casey Cep, The New Yorker, 4 Dec. 2023
The book, first published in 1927, is organized according to the calendar, with a passage of free verse that evokes the qualities and pleasures of each month, a small monochrome drawing nearby, and, on the facing page, a full-color illustration of the sort to draw fascinated attention.
—Meghan Cox Gurdon, WSJ, 16 Nov. 2023
His sentences come out as free verse, a sort of Rust Belt beat poetry.
—Popular Mechanics, 14 Apr. 2023
In The Letters of Thom Gunn, a new, behemoth collection of private correspondence across six decades, Gunn grapples with his states of in-betweenness: between being English and American; between writing free verse and formal verse; between exercising emotion and rationality.
—Jeremy Lybarger, The New Republic, 17 June 2022
See all Example Sentences for free verse 
Casey Cep, The New Yorker, 4 Dec. 2023
The book, first published in 1927, is organized according to the calendar, with a passage of free verse that evokes the qualities and pleasures of each month, a small monochrome drawing nearby, and, on the facing page, a full-color illustration of the sort to draw fascinated attention.
—Meghan Cox Gurdon, WSJ, 16 Nov. 2023
His sentences come out as free verse, a sort of Rust Belt beat poetry.
—Popular Mechanics, 14 Apr. 2023
In The Letters of Thom Gunn, a new, behemoth collection of private correspondence across six decades, Gunn grapples with his states of in-betweenness: between being English and American; between writing free verse and formal verse; between exercising emotion and rationality.
—Jeremy Lybarger, The New Republic, 17 June 2022
See all Example Sentences for free verse
Recent Examples of Synonyms for free verse
Noun
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Activities include an art workshop, open mic and poetry slam, artist talk, traditional African music and dance, and more.John Coffren, Baltimore Sun, 16 Jan. 2025
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Guided by the voice of Pulitzer-winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks, the solo work uses history, memory and poetry.Karu F. Daniels, New York Daily News, 16 Jan. 2025
Noun
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All kinds of essays, narratives, stories, encyclopedias, poems, and the like are scrutinized in a mathematical and computational fashion to ferret out the nature of human writing.Lance Eliot, Forbes, 13 Jan. 2025
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Harbaugh went on for two straight minutes, reciting the poem from memory.Daniel Popper, The Athletic, 9 Jan. 2025
Noun
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Ethel Cain: Perverts [Daughters of Cain] Ethel Cain found unlikely pop fandom with Preacher’s Daughter, her 2022 debut album, thanks to its emotional dirges and heavy lyrics.Nina Corcoran, Pitchfork, 10 Jan. 2025
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The setup feels like karaoke, with Buck cueing backing tracks, but there is no lyrics screen to lean on.Maxwell Williams, Los Angeles Times, 9 Jan. 2025
Noun
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Onto the page spilled more than ten thousand lines of the richest and most resourceful blank verse in the English language, arranged into ten books in 1667, then rearranged into twelve in 1674.Merve Emre, The New Yorker, 16 Dec. 2024
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The first assignment was to write a poem in blank verse.Elizabeth Lund, The Christian Science Monitor, 12 Sep. 2024
Noun
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His incendiary rhymes, which boldly call out the atrocities carried out by the country’s dictatorial regime, have resulted in multiple arrests and extended stretches in prison over the last five years, for a sum total of 753 days.SPIN Staff, SPIN, 9 Jan. 2025
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Both artists represent a newer wave in rap with a techno-heavy sound and mind-numbingly quick rhymes.Anna Kaufman, USA TODAY, 2 Jan. 2025
Noun
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Motown songs kept up with tunes by bands like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, and earworms from groups like the Supremes helped Motown sell more 45s than any other company in the nation.Teresa Nowakowski, Smithsonian Magazine, 12 Jan. 2025
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Fairy tales, rom-coms and love songs often inundate us with the idea that true love is effortless, as 2014 research from Psychology of Women Quarterly explains.Mark Travers, Forbes, 12 Jan. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Free verse.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/free%20verse. Accessed 22 Jan. 2025.
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