Read this excerpt from the poem "Monet's ‘Waterlilies'" by Robert Hayden. Here space and time exist in light the eye like the ey
e of faith believes. The seen, the known dissolve in iridescence, become illusive flesh of light that was not, was, forever is. O light beheld as through refracting tears. Here is the aura of that world each of us has lost. Here is the shadow of its joy. What is the best evidence that this poem is written in free verse? It has two stanzas. It has no set meter. It uses alliteration. It has no repeating words.
In general, we can state that a poem written in free verse is one that does not have a rhyming scheme, that is, the poem does not have verses ending with the same sound, or similar sounds. That alone would be enough to define the poem presented above as a free verse poem. However, the definition of free verse goes beyond that. A poem with free verses does not have a well-defined meter, that is, the poem does not have a rhythmic structure, a musicality.
