What is Blank Verse?

Blank Verse is any verse comprised of unrhymed lines all in the same meter, usually iambic pentameter. Iambic pentameter refers to lines of 10 syllables, with the stressed syllable usually being the even syllables when syllables are counted 1 through 10 (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10).

It was developed in Italy and became widely used during the Renaissance because it resembled classical, unrhymed poetry.

Blank verse can be composed in any meter and with any amount of feet per line (any line length), though the iamb (second beat) is generally the predominant foot, and Blank Verse is the technical name for unrhymed iambic pentameter

Blank verse is of the most common kinds of verse in English: many passages of Shakespeare's plays are in blank verse, as is Milton's Paradise Lost and WordSMorth's Prelude.

Blank verse was also embraced by Yeats, Pound, Frost, and Stevens who skillfully brought the tradition through this century. While it may not be as common as open form, it retains an important role in the world of poetry.

EXAMPLE:

I breathe and live each day with silent screams
That plague my ev'ry waking moments' thought
And tell me things I do not wish to hear
They take me places I would never go

But lately voices whispering inside
Have taken on a cruel and viscious tone
Compelling me to run and hide and weep
I cannot do the things they ask of me

I cannot let the voices in my head
Come out so others hear the tales they tell
They'd think I was a fruit, a nut, insane
The sad part is that they would be so right...

And now the voices do not give a choice
Demanding action on the part of me
Perhaps if I just give them what they want
They'll leave and never bother me again

Though I still think that I can't serve them well
I know that I must try or go insane
So if you see me walking late at night
Avoid the path I take, I warn you well..