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American Literature / Unit 1   AML 0012 short lesson, about 20 seconds

Blank Verse and Free Verse Are Not the Same Thing

Captions available

The idea

Blank verse is unrhymed iambic pentameter, and Frost's "Birches" is the example the witness attaches. Free verse has neither a set rhyme scheme nor a rhythm pattern, and Hughes's "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" is its example. One keeps the meter and drops the rhyme.

In practice

Blank verse keeps the beat; free verse drops it.

Where people slip

The exam sets these against each other.

Your place on the trail

Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.

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