Form

Blank Verse

Open and Experimental Verse

Unrhymed verse in a regular meter, in English almost always iambic pentameter, named for the blank space where a rhyme would otherwise fall. Introduced into English by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, in his translation of Virgil's Aeneid, the form became the standard meter of English dramatic verse in the hands of Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare, whose plays are written predominantly in blank verse, and of English epic in John Milton's Paradise Lost. Its combination of a steady underlying pulse with the freedom to run a sentence past the line's end, rather than pausing at every rhyme, made it suited to both the extended argument of epic and the naturalistic speech rhythms of dramatic dialogue.

Facts

Place of Origin

England; introduced by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, in his translation of Virgil's Aeneid, published 1554 to 1557. 1

Structure

Unrhymed verse in a regular meter, in English almost always iambic pentameter; its lines commonly run a sentence past the line break (enjambment) rather than pausing at every rhyme the way a rhymed form does. 1

Notable Example

Christopher Marlowe's and William Shakespeare's plays, written predominantly in blank verse; John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667). 1

Connections