What is a Free Verse?

A Free Verse is poetry written with rhymed or unrhymed verse that has no set meter to it.

An example of a Free Verse poem

In Flight

Wake up to a bright sapphire morning
Cloudless skies
This can only mean one thing
It’s a go!

At the launch site
Teeth chit-chattering
And not just from the c-cold

What if a bird confuses my head for a perch?
Will my glasses be fogged up by the clouds?
If I fall out of the basket
And land in a field of cows
I’m never forgiving my mum

Up we go!
Far below
Idyllic fields of patchwork green
Glittering lakes - a treasure trove beneath the surface
Click!

I can’t believe I’m so high
Feeling like a queen
I stretch my arms out to the sides
Now I’m a bird
So high
I close my eyes and take flight
I feel the wind in my wings
Up with the clouds
My hair, now feathers, sweeps behind me
I am as elegant as a swan
Soaring higher than the Earth

Crash!

Oh
I’m not a bird
I’m not as elegant as a swan
I’m about as elegant as a rhino on roller skates
I’m just a schoolgirl
On a balloon flight

And we just crash-landed
In a field
With cows.

Why don't you try writing a Free Verse poem and enter it into one of our poetry competitions.

For information on poetry types other than a Free Verse visit our poetry glossary – poetry types.