10 Examples of Free Verse

Is named Free verse to a type of irregular versification that does not obey even the equality of the number of syllables nor to the uniformity of the rhythmic groups.

The verse is the metric unit of rhythm, or rhythmic unit, that makes up poetry. From the phonic point of view, it is characterized by being located between two pauses, which are indicated graphically with their distribution in successive lines.
Internally, the verses are composed of phonic elements such as accents, pauses, caesuras or rhymes which, when repeated periodically in series, produce a rhythm.

The versification can be regular, when the verses or rhythmic units are measured, that is, when the syllables that compose them are counted. Or it can be irregular, when the verses do not have a fixed measure.

In accordance with The art of verse, by Tomás Navarro Tomás, within the irregular or ametric versification there are two types:

Origin of free verse

The irregular versification has its origin in the beginnings of the Spanish language. The

Poem by Mío Cid, from the 12th century, the oldest of the epic songs, is an example of this way of verse.

In the 15th century, rhythmic chants of irregular meter are observed. In modern literature, from Rubén Darío to the present day, the irregular meter is used frequently.

In particular, free verse originated in the second half of the 19th century, in France and the United States, as opposed to traditional metric forms. It was considered a more natural and colloquial form of versification.

Characteristics of free verse

By dispensing with the rhythm offered by rhyme, this form of versification uses other resources to recover the sound, musicality and homogeneity that are characteristic of the structure poetics:

Examples of free verse

1. Not good
   stay on the shore
   like the boardwalk or like the mollusk that calcareously wants to imitate the rock.
   But it is pure and serene to raze in bliss
   of flowing and getting lost,
   meeting in the movement with which the great heart of men beats outstretched.

Vicente Aleixandre, «In the square» (fragment)

1. Tomorrow when the air returns
   to hover over the flowers, over the high walls
   who guard the world,
   and the angels return tired to their trees;
   when the horizon sings under the sky
   and there are men who dance happily, joining their arms vertiginously,
   And the birds of the sea complain and fly around the masts,
   I will think: oh, my southern home, west of a great river,
   and I will enjoy pleasant memories. -Ever,
   oblivion will also run on the sea,
   and my land will go quiet to the other land without hope,
   And I don't know if I'll be happy

Ricardo E. Molinari, «I don't know if singing the wind dries up» (fragment)

1. You are a daughter of the sea and a cousin of oregano,
   swimmer, your body is made of pure water,
   cook, your blood is living earth
   and your customs are flowery and terrestrial.
   Your eyes go to the water and the waves raise,
   your hands fall to the ground and the seeds jump,
   in water and land you have deep properties
   that come together in you like the laws of clay.
   Naiad, cut your body the turquoise
   and then resurrected blooms in the kitchen
   in such a way that you assume how much exists
   and at last you sleep surrounded by my arms that separate
   of the dark shadow, for you to rest,
   legumes, algae, herbs: the foam of your dreams.

Pablo Neruda

1. One night,
   a night full of perfumes, murmurs and music of wings,
   one night,
   in which the fantastic fireflies burned in the damp nuptial shadow,
   by my side, slowly, against me girded, all, mute and pale
   as if a presentiment of infinite bitterness
   even the most secret depth of your fibers will shake you,
   down the path through the flowered plain
   you walked,
   and the full moon
   Through the blue skies, infinite and deep, it scattered its white light,
   and your shadow,
   fine and languid,
   and my shadow
   by the projected rays of the moon,
   over the sad sands
   of the path they gathered
   and they were one
   and they were one
   And they were one long shadow!
   And they were one long shadow!
   And they were one long shadow!

José Asunción Silva, «Nocturno» (fragment)

1. The universe has its jagged edges
   and it's all of a strange new color
   of an unknown philatelic name
   The universe
   he wanted to kiss god
   and when crossing a flight of angels
   he got stuck on the cheek
   the slowest
   the one with the wings in crest of fire.

Gerardo Diego, «The seal»

1. And she took off her robe,
   and she _appeared she naked all ...
   Oh passion of my life, poetry
   naked, mine forever!

Juan Ramón Jiménez, "Wine first pure"

1. You are the company with whom I speak
   suddenly, alone.
   The words that come out of the silence form you
   And from the dream tank in which I drown
   free until waking up.

Xavier Villaurrutia, "Reflections"

1. With the afternoon
   the two or three colors of the patio were tired.
   Tonight, the moon, the clear circle,
   it does not dominate its space.
   Patio, channeled sky.
   The yard is the decline
   through which the sky is poured into the house.
   Serena,
   Eternity waits at the crossroads of stars.
   It is pleasant to live in dark friendship
   of a hallway, a vine and a cistern.

Jorge Luis Borges

1. It's wonderful to put the radio on
   low volume
   at 4.30 in the morning
   in an apartment building
   and hear Haydn
   while through the blind
   you can only see the dark night
   beautiful and calm
   like a flower.
   And with that
   something to drink,
   Clear,
   a cigarette
   the stove on,
   and Haydn ringing.

Charles Bukowski (excerpt)

1. When I started my studies, I really liked the first step,
   The mere conscious fact, the forms, the power to move,
   The smallest insect or animal, the senses, sight, love,
   The first step dominated me and I liked it so much
   That it cost me to continue and if I stopped it was
   'Cause I wanted to stop there, lounging around to sing
   that in my ecstatic songs.

Walt whitman

It can serve you: