Poetic Form
Free Verse
From French vers libre. Whitman established the English tradition; the Imagists (Pound, H.D.) codified it; it is now the dominant mode of contemporary poetry.
Definition
Poetry that abandons fixed metre and rhyme, relying instead on rhythm, imagery, syntax, and the line break for structure.
Example
Whitman's 'Song of Myself' (1855): 'I celebrate myself, and sing myself, / And what I assume you shall assume.'