Blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter), used in ... - SchoolNotes

Mr. Borish
AP Literature
Blank Verse and Free Verse: What’s the Difference?
Blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter), used in Shakespeare's dramas
and Milton's Paradise Lost, is one of the most common metrical patterns in
English poetry.
Example: from Romeo and Juliet Act 1.
PRINCE
Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace,
Profaners of this neighbour-stained steel,--
Will they not hear? What, ho! you men, you beasts,
That quench the fire of your pernicious rage
With purple fountains issuing from your veins,
On pain of torture, from those bloody hands
Throw your mistemper'd weapons to the ground,
And hear the sentence of your moved prince.
Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word,
By thee, old Capulet, and Montague,
Have thrice disturb'd the quiet of our streets,
And made Verona's ancient citizens
Cast by their grave beseeming ornaments,
To wield old partisans, in hands as old,
Canker'd with peace, to part your canker'd hate:
If ever you disturb our streets again,
Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.
For this time, all the rest depart away:
You Capulet; shall go along with me:
And, Montague, come you this afternoon,
To know our further pleasure in this case,
To old Free-town, our common judgment-place.
Once more, on pain of death, all men depart.
Exeunt all but MONTAGUE, LADY MONTAGUE, and BENVOLIO
Will they not hear? What, ho! you men, you beasts, (5) stressed syllables
That quench the fire of your pernicious rage (5) stressed syllables
With purple fountains issuing from your veins, (5) stressed syllables
On pain of torture, from those bloody hands (5) stressed syllables
Throw your mistemper'd weapons to the ground, (5) stressed syllables
And hear the sentence of your moved prince. (5) stressed syllables
Dominant Pattern = an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (5 times) = iambic pentameter.
Non-rhyming iambic pentameter = BLANK VERSE

FREE VERSE: Poetry that is based on the irregular rhythmic CADENCE or the recurrence, with
variations, of phrases, images, and syntactical patterns rather than the conventional use of METER.
RHYME may or may not be present in free verse, but when it is, it is used with great freedom.
Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892) is often celebrated as the first free verse poet in English. However, free
verse in English has a longer history and possibly an even longer past. For example, there is some free
verse in the Bible (Psalms).
Example: Walt Whitman
“When I heard the Learn’d Astronomer”
When I heard the learn'd astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander'd off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.
Cadence and sound devices are used but there is no evidence of a dominant metrical pattern.