Vers Libre

Literary/ Cultural Context Note

Peter Lewis Groves (Monash University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. WORLD HISTORY AND IDEAS: A CROSS-CULTURAL VOLUME.

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Vers Libre

(French for “free verse”): a kind of free verse which constantly alludes to, approaches and skirts around metrical form (in English, usually iambic pentameter) without quite embodying it. In this passage the italicized lines are iambic pentameter and the lines that follow are in

vers libre

What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man, You cannot say, or guess, for you know only

A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,And the dry stone no sound of water. OnlyThere is shadow under this red rock,(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),And I will show you something different from eitherYour shadow at morning striding behind you Or your shadow at evening rising to meet

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157 words

Citation: Groves, Peter Lewis. "Vers Libre". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 June 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1763, accessed 26 April 2024.]

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