good books on how to write free verse poetry?

free verse, by definition, is devoid of rules.

i'd recommend reading other free verse poets, examining and analyzing what sings to you and elevates your consciousness and then find ways to do that for other readers.

Seconding our William's advice.

Free verse is focused on individual expression. Each poem has its own rhythm and internal consistency (or inconsistency, if the feeling and metaphor so move). Rhyme is used for effect, not by prescription.

You might explore spoken performances (poetry slams), as they will give you a feel for tempo, emotion, metaphor, and other poetic sensibilities without the boundaries of lines and letters. for example 1, click here

for example 2, click here

I can also recommend the series of filmed performances done at the Geraldine Dodge Poetry Festivals. click here to browse

Welcome!

Poetry for dummies.

ventriloquists should be very careful with what arcane knowledge they share.

I suspect every poetry textbook (i.e. how to write or how to appreciate) written since probably 1900 has a significant section on free verse. I own about 15 of them, all published in the free verse-dominant era, all picked up at yard sales, flea markets, and thrift stores for never more than $2.00 a book. I also picked up one at a conference at full price. It helped me to the same extent the bargain ones did. As William stated, free verse is free of rules. That puts a premium on the use of poetic devices. You mostly set aside form, rhyme, and meter, which forces you to use other poetic devices and use them well.

Having said that, you should know I've not been able to master free verse and, despite my studies, still can't appreciate it. Consider that as you contemplate this free advice.

Norman D Gutter said:

You mostly set aside form, rhyme, and meter...

Click to expand...

this is simply not true.

William Haskins said:

this is simply not true.

Click to expand...

Not sure what you mean by that, William. Would you mind elaborating? Are you saying that in free verse you don't mostly set aside form, rhyme, and meter? If not, what do you consider to be the characteristics of free verse?

free verse is perfectly capable of establishing and exhibiting form, without being beholden to precedent or template.

rhyme and meter can, and do, play active roles in a lot of free verse poetry, but are implemented without obligation to established rhyme schemes or metrical forms.

Sometimes I think when we tell people to read poetry, we should remember to add: and read it aloud.

Because language is metered, and melodic (or tonal).

^ Stephen Fry says just that in his excellent The Ode Less Travelled - I paraphrase from memory, but he recommends both reading poems out loud, and savouring them - that is, not running through a poetry volume page after page, like a novel, but taking time to appreciate a single poem. Reading them aloud helps bring the rhythms and feel to life. (eta: I'll check tonight, but I feel certain that, among all the working examples Fry provides, there are exercises in free verse. One thing I like very much about this book is that Fry doesn't hold any one form above or below another - form, free, or otherwise - but looks at them all as enjoyable and very worth understanding and pursuing.)

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While free verse is not bound by fixed, conventional forms, I think it must involve rhythm, meter, and other devices (assonance, rhyme, alliteration, and all) -- just in a freer sense. So, for example, it may not follow a strict tempo or beat, but it would still use these devices to enhance the literal meaning - to create atmosphere, stir emotion, help illustrate the scene.

If form, meter and rhyme count for nothing at all in free verse, then I would ask: how exactly is free verse different from prose? Surely, it is. And not just because the author's say-so confers poem-ness.

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Poetry seems to be one of a very few art forms (perhaps the only one) where so many people would rather be told how, and just do it, than experience it and take cues from what's already out there. How can we know if that's what we want to write, if we haven't read any of it? [And I certainly don't mean to suggest that you haven't read any!]

Any musician, no matter the genre, would listen to a LOT of music, and not just in their chosen genre. Chances are they've even learned their craft by studying and playing music in forms they have no interested in playing. But, for some reason, many poets want to reject forms as restrictions, rather than understand them as useful tools, before they've even started.

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Off the top of my head, a couple of recommendations - it may or may not be your style, but Richard Brautigan's In Watermelon Sugar. Or Lawrence Ferlinghetti's A Coney Island of the Mind. Maybe pick a couple, and look at what - to your own eye - makes any of these poems free verse, and not just words.

In fact, maybe it's time for a workshop thread, or even a Rate-A-Poem, on something like this.

A very good question to ask, and thank you. I think I need to be able to answer this for myself too.

A most useful book on the subject of Free Verse is Chris Beyer's "The History Of Free Verse". Easy to read and can be bought at Amazon new or used and other book sellers. Maybe your local library will have it or can bower it from another library for you.