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Blank verse is a form of poetry that adheres to a specific meter (usually iambic pentameter) but does not rhyme. These poems offer poets the freedom to express their ideas and emotions without the constraints of rhyme schemes.
Blank verse has been used by many renowned poets, including William Shakespeare in his plays and John Milton in ‘Paradise Lost.’
Its unrhymed structure gives it a natural, conversational flow while maintaining a sense of rhythm. Blank verse poems often focus on introspective themes, complex narratives, or philosophical musings. The absence of rhyme can lend a sense of modernity and versatility to these poems, allowing poets to experiment with language and form.
‘Fra Freud’ is a poem about how Sigmund Freud’s wife counters one of his psychological theories with the use of humour and feminist philosophy.
Ladies, for argument's sake, let us say
that I've seen my fair share of ding-a-ling, member and jock,
‘Mending Wall’ by Robert Frost explores the nature of human relationships. The speaker suggests there are two types of people, those who want walls and those who don’t.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
‘Darkness’ by Lord Byron is a foreboding poem that predicts haunting consequences for humanity in the rapidly changing modern world.
I had a dream, which was not all a dream.
The bright sun was extinguish'd, and the stars
Did wander darkling in the eternal space,
Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth
Alfred Lord Tennyson’s ‘Oenone’ weaves heart-wrenching verses as Oenone, spurned by Paris, faces solitude, despair, and a haunting future.
There lies a vale in Ida, lovelier
Than all the valleys of Ionian hills.
The swimming vapour slopes athwart the glen,
Puts forth an arm, and creeps from pine to pine,
‘The Complaints of Poverty’ by Nicholas James uses rhetorical devices and rhyme to give the rich a good look at how unpleasant it is to be poor. James indirectly challenges the stigmas associated with both wealth and poverty, inviting the rich to treat poor people with compassion, sympathy, and generosity.
MAY poverty, without offence, approach
The splendid equipage, the gilded coach?
May it with freedom all its wants make known?
And will not wealth and pow'r assume a frown?
William Butler Yeats’s ‘The Second Coming’ delves into the hopeless atmosphere of post-World War I Europe through apocalyptic imagery.
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
Vernon Scannell’s ‘Hide and Seek’ delves into loneliness and abandonment through a narrative of a hide-and-seek game.
Call out. Call loud: ‘I’m ready! Come and find me!’
The sacks in the toolshed smell like the seaside.
They’ll never find you in this salty dark,
But be careful that your feet aren’t sticking out.
‘Late Wisdom’ by George Crabbe unfolds life’s maze, embracing experience’s torch, mastering emotions, and questioning virtue’s timeless struggle with the past.
We've trod the maze of error round,
Long wandering in the winding glade;
And now the torch of truth is found,
It only shows us where we strayed:
‘Love of Country’ presents a world in which patriotism is the most important virtue of all and the lack of it is unforgivable.
Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd,
‘Wolsey’s Farewell to His Greatness’ by William Shakespeare is a set of lines found in Act III Scene 2 of Henry VIII, a famous history play. The lines are spoken by Cardinal Wolsey, one of the King’s closest advisors.
Farewell! a long farewell, to all my greatness!
This is the state of man: to-day he puts forth
The tender leaves of hope, to-morrow blossoms,
And bears his blushing honours thick upon him:
Tennyson’s ‘Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal’ illustrates lovers’ union and the speaker’s desire through intricate nature imagery at twilight.
Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white;
Nor waves the cypress in the palace walk;
Nor winks the gold fin in the porphyry font.
The firefly wakens; waken thou with me.
‘Caliban upon Setebos’ by Robert Browning delves into Caliban’s contemplation of God’s power, nature, and his place in the universe.
'Will sprawl, now that the heat of day is best,
Flat on his belly in the pit's much mire,
With elbows wide, fists clenched to prop his chin,
And, while he kicks both feet in the cool slush,
‘How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!’ by William Shakespeare is an excerpt from The Merchant of Venice, a famous Shakespearean play. The lines are found in Act V Scene 1 and are spoken by Lorenzo.
How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!
Here will we sit and let the sounds of music
Creep in our ears: soft stillness and the night
Become the touches of sweet harmony.
‘The Choir Invisible’ by George Eliot describes the hopes a speaker has for the afterlife and the impact her memory might have on those still living.
O May I join the choir invisible
Of those immortal dead who live again
In minds made better by their presence: live
In pulses stirr'd to generosity,
‘Birches’ is one of the most famous, admired, and thoughtful Robert Frost poems. The poem profoundly describes something simple, an ordinary incident, in elevated terms.
When I see birches bend to left and right
Across the lines of straighter darker trees,
I like to think some boy’s been swinging them.
But swinging doesn’t bend them down to stay
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