What makes free verse poetry?

Over the past century or two, a schism has grown between two minds of poetry: the written and the spoken. The spoken largely needs the iambs, the meter and the sound tools. Written poetry has gone for the pleasure of the eye.

free verse owes the art form no formal structure or mandated meter; it is, however, accountable for the effective transference of an idea or image, and still differs (as is evident in your example) from prose in its application of metaphor, its compression of language and some sense of fluidity, if not musicality, through the select and opportune use of formal elements like rhyme, etc., but without being obligated to do so by some codified precedent.

Where to draw the line is anyone's guess. There is no guarantee that even the famous and most approved have the sense of poetry that matches your own. Does that make them wrong? By your standard, perhaps, and there is nothing wrong with thinking so. If there could be such a thing as right, you may be it. Just keep in mind that there are other standards.

I'd look for a sense of musicality and compression to distinguish poetry from prose.

Musicality may not always be obvious. Rhymes can be buried in the middle instead of stuck out at the end of lines. Meters can pop up in odd places and last for a while, then disappear, sometimes to be summoned up again later in what may be an appealingly sly echo. Meter can be suddenly overstuffed or have a syllable cut out for emphasis.

Compression of language is usually more obvious. If everyone spoke and thought brilliantly, poetry would be our native tongue. We would have neither need nor room for most words. Prose allows us to dawdle and leave the art to catch up later, if at all. Poetry can't survive that. Poetry's demands are brutal -- the best thought in the best words. Ouch. Suddenly most writing is not okay. And that's okay. There's nothing wrong with prose.

Maybe the difference between poetry and prose recalls the famous obscenity trial in which the judge was asked if he could even define obscenity in the first place: "I know it when I see it."

You're going to have to make a judgment call on when poetry is little more than prose. And you are going to have to accept that people will argue with you about it. Frankly, we all differ in both viewpoints and standards. Find yours and be neither shy nor obnoxious about them, IMO.

A last note about compression: Keep in mind that compression is not a virtue in itself. The idea that it is can be a distracting dead end. Compression is merely an artifact of finding perfect wording.

If your criteria prioritize sticking to musicality and finding the best word for the best thought, you'll be better at ferreting out poetry than a barrel full of English professors.

Blarg said:

If everyone spoke and thought brilliantly, poetry would be our native tongue.

Click to expand...

Ahhh - Utopia.

You're confusing verse and talking about free verse when you mean blank verse:

Blank Verse and Free Verse are generally the most misunderstood and incorrectly implemented forms of poetry. You need to know the difference before you can know what either is as they are too often confused.

Blank verse consists of non-rhyming lines of idealogical meter such as iambic (penta)meter. The form is the most accepted dramatic verse in the English language and is often used for epic poems whether theatrical or narrative.

Blank verse is not just any metrical form of verse without rhyme. Good blank verse is arty and demanding of a poet’s skill and is possibly the most strict poetic mistress of all as the freedom gained through the lack of rhyme is offset by huge requirement of vocabulary diversity and imagery to maintain audience interest while conforming to tight and solid meter. To achieve this the poet employs copious amounts of device such as cesura for dramatic pauses and pacing, shifting stress and vowel pronunciation through assonance and consonance, irregular stanza architecture or interluding dialogue through broken stanzas and the list goes on...and on

Free Verse is based on irregular rhythmic cadence and recurring resonance through selective sonics, with variations of phrases, images, and syntactical patterns rather than conventional meter. In other words, free verse has no strict meter to follow, but adheres to device and imagery - Free verse does not mean rhyme cannot be used, only that it must be used without regular or recurrent pattern.

Free form is non-rhyming poetry that does not conform to meter or traditional constructs

The five lines you quote in your first post are free verse - but you're trying to apply to them an analysis belonging to blank verse. Having taken my explanations above into account, can you now read those few lines and the rest of the piece in a way that answers your questions for you?