Notes about "Blank Verse"

Blank verse is not "free verse."

Blank verse does have one freedom, though -- no rhyme.

Blank verse is unrhymed but otherwise regular verse, usually iambic pentameter. This form, generally accepted as that best adapted to dramatic verse in English, is commonly used for long poems whether dramatic, philosophic, or narrative.

The freedom gained through the lack of rhyme is offset by the demands for variety, which may be obtained by the skillful poet through a number of means:

• the shifting of the "caesura," or pause, from place to place within the line.

• the shifting of the stress among syllables.

• the use of the run-on line, which permits thought-grouping in large or small blocks (verse paragraphs).

• the variation in tonal qualities by changing the level of diction from passage to passage.

• the adaptation of the form to reflect differences in the speech of characters and in emotion.

Some possible examples:

• Interior monologues

• Dramatic monologues

• Soliloquies

• Monologues