Blank verse
Blank verse is poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter, lines of ten syllables in a steady weak-strong rhythm with no rhyme at the ends.
John Milton opens Paradise Lost with: "Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruit / Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste / Brought death into the World, and all our woe". Count ten syllables a line, weak then strong, and notice that no line ends in a matching sound. That is blank verse.
Why leave out the rhyme
Rhyme is a strong signal of art. It tells the reader a poem is being performed. Without it, the line can follow the swing of a speaking voice, and the sentence is free to run across line breaks, which is called enjambment. Blank verse keeps the pulse of iambic pentameter but lets the thought breathe at its own pace.
That makes it good for long works. A thousand lines of rhymed couplets would grow tiresome, but a thousand lines of blank verse can carry an argument, a speech or a story without the jingle.
Where you find it
- Most of the verse in Shakespeare's plays.
- Epic and philosophical poems such as Paradise Lost.
- Dramatic monologues, where a single speaker holds forth.
Why it matters to a writer or editor
Blank verse is the best training in hearing the line. Because there is no rhyme to lean on, the rhythm and the choice of words have to do all the work. When editing it, scan the line first. Where the rhythm bends, ask whether the bend lands on a key word. The difference between blank verse and its looser cousin is worth knowing too: see free verse and meter.
Read an example
Read an example: "Fears in Solitude" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1798), a public domain poem on Bossfeed, written in blank verse.
Frequently asked questions
Is blank verse the same as free verse?
No. Blank verse has a strict meter, iambic pentameter, and only drops the rhyme. Free verse drops both the regular meter and the rhyme.
Why did Shakespeare use blank verse?
It sits close to speech, so actors can speak it naturally, while still sounding heightened. He shifted into prose for low-status characters and comic scenes.
Who else wrote in blank verse?
John Milton in Paradise Lost, Wordsworth in The Prelude, Tennyson in Ulysses and Robert Frost in many of his narrative poems.