Writing In Blank Verse

I like blank verse. I believe that narrative poetry (poems that tell stories) can be very powerfully contained within blank verse poetry. I would guess that most people who are not poetry junkies have no idea what makes a line or a poem blank verse.

Some may recall from high school English lit classes that Shakespeare wrote his plays with blank verse, and I imagine most of adults remembering the required reading of Shakespeare's works have most decidedly unfun memories of struggling through those plays.

This is certainly not true of every student. I was a wantabee poet back in my high school days and while I struggled with the language and the archaic vocabulary, but when the teacher explained blank verse I wanted to understand it.

The problem was that my teacher wasn't really a poetry fan and had only the most basic understanding of blank verse. I have studied the form off and on for years and continue to learn more about it as time goes on.

What Is Blank Verse?

Well the blank part of the name is there because where the rhyme would normally be waiting it is missing. The rhymes are all blank. In addition to no rhymes, there is a pattern of beats in blank verse poetry. Our words are pronounced using syllables, and as we say words some syllables are stressed and some are not. If I say "the boy" I say the "the" with less force than the word "boy."

the BOY

To study the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables the traditional marks are as follows:
U = unstressed and ' = Stressed

U...'
the BOY

Actually, it is difficult for me to indicate because the fonts available.

These poet nerds have given names to the various combinations of stresses and unstressed. In blank verse the line is said to be written in iambic pentameter. An iambi is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one. One iamb is often referred to as a foot. The word Pente means 5, so an line of iambic pentameter is a string of 5 iambic feet.

U....'.........U....'.........U....'......U....'...U...'
The mon - key stuck an ap - ple up his nose.
tuh...dah.......tuh..dah.......tuh..dah...tuh...dah.tuh...dah.

Blank verse resembles regular speech, almost. To write a blank verse line you have to select your words carefully. When I write in blank verse, I mutter and mull over each line and tap with my finger listening. I'm listening for 5 stresses in each line, of course, but I am also listening to hear if the line makes sense, is the line saying what I want to say, does is sound good.
Here is the problem. Hardly anyone writing in blank verse writes strict or perfect blank verse. The poets are always adding extra syllables, extra beats, tinkering with the pattern.

In Robert Frost's wonderful poem The Star Splitter there is a line that goes:

We've looked and looked and after all where are we?

As I scan the line for it's meter I get this:

U........'..............U......'...........U.....'......U...'.....U.........'......U

We've looked and looked and af - ter all where are we?

There is an extra unstressed syllable at the end. If it were perfect iambic pentameter there would be 5 iambs and only 10 syllables in the line. The line above has eleven syllables.

Here is another Frost poem in blank verse, Mending Wall,

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,

That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,

And spills the upper boulders in the sun

The first line starts not with the unstressed syllable, as strict blank verse would, but with a stressed syllable. When you scan the lines you get other variations:

'..............U.......U......'....U......'........U...'.........U....'

Some - thing - there is.. that .does - n't ..love ..a .wall
dah.........tuh,,,..,,tuh.....dah..tuh...dah....... tuh..dah...tuh..dah

Note that the pattern is not strict at the beginning of the line, but quickly falls into perfect iambic pentameter. But when I bold and italicize the stressed syllables I find that the last two lines from the excerpt do fit the blank verse patter, but that word swell seems to be a sort of half stress to me.

Well, if a world recognized expert in the use of blank verse veers off from the perfect pattern of blank verse, then first we want to know why, and secondly, if we too are poets, we want to know how their rationale will help us in our own writing.

There are two kinds of blank verse

There is strict blank verse (which makes every line perfect) and blank verse loose (which is dominated by the pattern, but allows from variations.)

The loose iambic pentameter with diversions from the perfect pattern is there to keep the lines from become too monotonous. Take the plays of William Shakespeare. After a thousand lines of perfect iambic pentameter the listeners would be lulled into sleep. If you have ever slept with a fan on, in the room, you know that if the sound is repeated perfectly and endlessly the way machines make noise, you can actually sleep better. It is a poor man's white noise machine. You just don't want your poetry to become monotonous.

What follows is a blank verse poem of my own. You will notice that in some cases I dropped down a line to complete the line of iambic pentameter.

U......'.........U....'.....U..'.........U......'....U....'

"You need not hang a round with me,"
........................................................................he said.

AFTER DINNER WITH DAD by tex norman

"You need not hang around with me,"

.....................................................................he said.
"If you've got stuff to do, I'll understand.
I'm sure that you're as busy as a one
legged man who's paid for kickin' butts."

My father laughed at his own joke, but I
just sat there. I didn't say a thing.
.............................................."Maybe
you've got folks to see. Don't baby sit
with me, I'm fine. Of course it's great to see
you, and I love your company, you know,
but you're a man with tasks you must get done
I might be old, but able still to fend for
myself. I've learned a thing or two about
how to murder time and not get caught.
What with your mother gone I do the work

of two."
.............I sat and let the old man talk.
Eventually the pauses in his speech
outnumbered words. My father petered out.
Silence, like a Rhino, wedged between us
on the couch. You can't ignore a beast
as big and dangerous as that. So I
stood up and told my dad I had to go.

"I've got a bunch of stuff to do,"
.....................................................I said.

He said he understood. That it's been great.
I said we'd get together soon, and left.
Then slowly I drove home to watch TV
preferring nothingness to him. I've learned
to push the guilt aside like clutter on
my couch. I shove it back and clear a place
for me to rest guilt free, guilt free, guilt free.