Editing Free verse (section)

==Definition==
It is said that verse is free "when it is not primarily obtained by the metered line."<ref name="allen" /> Free verse does not "proceed by a strict set of rules … is not a literary type, and does not conform to a formal structure," but it is not considered to be completely free. In 1948, Charles Allen wrote, "The only freedom cadenced verse obtains is a limited freedom from the tight demands of the metered line."<ref name="allen">{{cite journal |last1=Allen |first1=Charles |title=Cadenced Free Verse |journal=College English |date=1948 |volume=9 |issue=4 |pages=195–199 |doi=10.2307/371561|jstor=371561 }}</ref> Free verse is as equally subject to elements of form (the poetic line, which may vary freely; rhythm; strophes or strophic rhythms; stanzaic patterns and rhythmic units or cadences) as other forms of poetry. [[Donald Hall]] goes as far as to say that "the ''form'' of free verse is as binding and as liberating as the ''form'' of a [[rondeau (poetry)|rondeau]],"<ref>Donald Hall, in the essay 'Goatfoot, Milktongue, Twinbird' in the book of 0-472-40000-2.</ref> and [[T. S. Eliot]] wrote, "No verse is free for the man who wants to do a good job."<ref>Eliot quote from the essay, "The Music of Poetry" Jackson (1 January 1942) ASIN B0032Q49RO</ref>

[[Kenneth Allott]], the poet and critic, said the adoption by some poets of ''[[vers libre]]'' arose from "mere desire for novelty, the imitation of [[Walt Whitman|Whitman]], the study of [[English literature|Jacobean]] dramatic [[blank verse]], and the awareness of what French poets had already done to the [[French alexandrine|alexandrine]] in France."<ref>Introductory Note by Kenneth Allott (ed.) ''The Penguin Book of Contemporary Verse'', [[Penguin Books]], Harmondsworth, England 1950</ref> The American critic [[John Livingston Lowes]] in 1916 observed "Free verse may be written as very beautiful [[prose]]; prose may be written as very beautiful free verse. Which is which?"<ref>Lowes, Livingston John, ''Nation'' Feb 1916</ref>

Some poets have considered free verse restrictive in its own way. In 1922, [[Robert Bridges]] voiced his reservations in the essay "[[Humdrum and Harum-Scarum]]". [[Robert Frost]], in a comment regarding [[Carl Sandburg]], later remarked that writing free verse was like "playing tennis without a net." Sandburg responded saying, in part, "There have been poets who could and did play more than one game of tennis with unseen rackets, volleying airy and fantastic balls over an insubstantial net, on a frail moonlight fabric of a court."<ref>'' The Robert Frost Encyclopedia''. Nancy Lewis Tuten, John Zubizarreta. Greenwood Press (2001). Page 318. {{ISBN|9780313294648}}</ref><ref>Lingeman, Richard. "A Poet for the People: ''Carl Sandberg: A Biography''".  ''Los Angeles Times''. 14 July 1991.</ref> [[William Carlos Williams]] said, "Being an art form, a verse cannot be free in the sense of having no limitations or guiding principles."<ref>Free Verse, ''Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics'', 2nd Ed, 1975</ref> [[Yvor Winters]], the poet and critic, said, "…the greatest fluidity of statement is possible where the greatest clarity of form prevails. … The free verse that is really verse—the best that is, of [[William Carlos Williams|W.C. Williams]], [[H. D.]], [[Marianne Moore]], [[Wallace Stevens]], and [[Ezra Pound]]—is, in its peculiar fashion, the [[antithesis]] of free."<ref>[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008999461&view=1up&seq=11] Winters, Yvor. ''Primitivism and Decadence: A Study of American Experimental Poetry''. Arrow Editions, New York, 1937. p. 7</ref>

In [[Welsh poetry]], however, the term has a completely different meaning. According to [[Jan Morris]], "When Welsh poets speak of Free Verse, they mean forms like the [[sonnet]] or the [[ode]], which obey the same rules as English [[Metre (poetry)|poesy]]. [[Cerdd dafod|Strict Metre]]s verse still honours the [[Cynghanedd|immensely complex rules]] laid down for correct poetic composition 600 years ago."<ref>Jan Morris (1984), ''The Matter of Wales: Epic Views of a Small Country'', [[Oxford University Press]]. Page 152.</ref>