10 Examples of Difference Between Prose and Verse

Difference between prose and verse

The difference between prose and verse it lies in the rules that each one must comply with. Prose is the most natural form of expression of language and has a freer structure, while verse is each line of a poetry and conforms to rules of meter, rhyme and rhythm.

Prose does not have as strict rules as verse, nor does it have rhyme or a certain number of syllables or words. It is used in different types of texts such as news, stories, novels, monographs, essays and reviews. For instance:

“Once upon a time, there was a bee in a hive that did not want to work, that is, she would go through the trees one by one to drink the juice of the flowers; but instead of keeping it to turn it into honey, he drank it all. "

(Horacio Quiroga)

The verse, generally, does have rhyme, a certain number of syllables, pauses and rhythm. It is used in poetry. For instance:

“The sweet nightingales chirped,
the sun illuminated my joy,
the classroom whispered among the flowers,
the forest meekly responded,
the sources murmured the love of him... "

(José de Espronceda)

Characteristics of prose

Types of prose

Characteristics of the verse

Types of verse

Prose examples

1. Fragment of Socrates' Apology from Plato

"And among the many lies that have come from his lips there is one that has caused me special wonder: I mean that part of his speech in which they affirmed that you must be prepared not to be deceived by me since, according to them, I am a skilled orator. Indeed, the fact that they do not feel ashamed at the proximity of being exposed by me, and not with words, but with deeds, once that my complete inability to speak seems to me the most blatant of his conduct, unless they call the one who says the truth."

1. Fragment of Metaphysics of Aristotle

“All men by nature want to know. This is indicated by the love of the senses; Well, regardless of their usefulness, they are loved because of themselves, and the most of all, that of sight. Indeed, not only to act, but also when we do not think to do anything, we prefer the view, so to speak, to all the others. "

1. Fragment of The interpretation of dreams by Sigmund Freud

“In times that we can call prescientific, the explanation of dreams was commonplace for men. What they remembered about them upon awakening was interpreted with a benign or hostile manifestation of super-terrestrial, demonic or divine powers. "

1. Fragment of The Open Veins of Latin America by Eduardo Galeano

“America was not only without a name. The Norwegians did not know that they had discovered it long ago, and Columbus himself died, after his travels, still convinced that he had reached Asia by the western route. "

1. Fragment of "Novel" by Jorge Luis Borges

“As a thinker, Kafka overwhelms us with the depth of a Pascal, the irony of a Kierkegaard, the lucidity of a Nietzsche. Stylistically, it is not inferior to them. "

Examples of verse

1. Fragment of The gaucho Martín Fierro by José Hernández

"Here I start to sing
to the beat of the vigüela,
that the man who reveals it
an extraordinary sorrow,
like the lonely bird
with singing he consoles himself. "

1. Fragment of "Arcos" by María Magdalena Julia Portal Moreno«

only the anguish of tonight is true
palpable between my cold hands
I cry that falls inside me
i this desire to ask for p e r d or n "

1. Fragment of "Allegory of the brevity of human things" by Luis de Góngora

"Learn, flowers, in me
What goes from yesterday to today,
What a wonder I was yesterday
and my shadow I am not yet. "

1. Fragment of "Illiterate" by Octavio Paz

"I raised my face to the sky,
immense stone of worn letters:
the stars revealed nothing to me. "

1. Fragment of "Man who looks at his country from exile" by Mario Benedetti

"Shaken country
hand and letter
dungeon and grasslands

country you will arm yourself
piece by piece
people my people ”.

It can serve you: