48 of the Best Free Verse Poems From Contemporary Poets
Robert Frost called free verse “playing with the net down.” And T.S. Eliot wrote, “No verse is free for the man who wants to do a good job.” Yet Walt Whitman, Langston Hughes, and plenty of contemporary poets are among the many who have written beautiful work in free verse. But what are free verse poems, anyway, and why the controversy?
What Are Free Verse Poems?
Free verse is here defined as a poem with no set meter or verse that mimics natural speech patterns. Free verse poems can be short or long, contain sporadic rhymes or none at all, and be conveyed in spoken or written mediums. Because a free verse poem isn’t tied to any specific form, poets generally have more room to experiment with structure than they would with other styles.
Critics argue that since they contain no regular rhyme and meter, free verse poems are just glorified prose. But those who write or appreciate free verse feel that free verse has its own tools beyond meter or rhyme—like punctuation, line break, and vocabulary—that makes it just as legitimate of a poetic form as other styles.
The Best Free Verse Poems
Still confused about what free verse poetry encompasses and need a few examples? Check out these 50 exceptional free verse poems, from the famous to the up-and-coming and everything in-between.
1. “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” by Walt Whitman
2. “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes
3. “From Blossoms” by Li-Young Lee
4. “The Pool” by H.D.
5. “I Carry Your Heart with Me (I Carry It In My Heart)” by E.E. Cummings
6. “Risk” by Anaïs Nin
7. “Sloe Gin” by Seamus Heaney
8. “Accent” by Rupi Kaur
9. “Anne Hathaway” by Carol Ann Duffy
10. “The Crickets Have Arthritis” by Shane Koyczan
11. “The Good Life” by Tracy K. Smith
12. “Praise the Rain” by Joy Harjo
13. “Typewriter Series #1950” by Tyler Knott Gregson
14. “In the Metro Station” by Ezra Pound
15. “Siren Song” by Margaret Atwood
16. “Real Silence” by Atticus
17. “You Took the Last Bus Home” by Brian Bilston
18. “Vacation” by Rita Dove
19. “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden
20. “Fog” by Carl Sandburg
21. “Persephone to Hades” by Nikita Gill
22. “Tulips” by Sylvia Plath
23. “In the Hospital” by Chen Chen
24. “The Snow Man” by Wallace Stevens
25. “Diving into the Wreck” by Adrienne Rich
26. “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou
27. “Autumn” by T.E. Hulme
28. “Theory of Motion (6), Nocturne” by Cam Awkward-Rich
29. “The Peace of Wild things” by Wendell Berry
30. “To the Desert” by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
32. “Hurry” by Marie Howe
33. “How to Triumph Like a Girl” by Ada Limón
34. “OCD” by Neil Hilborn
35. “Kissing in Vietnamese” by Ocean Vuong
36. “Quilts” by Nikki Giovanni
37. “Untitled” by Pavana
38. “The First Person Who Will Live to Be One Hundred and Fifty Years Old Has Already Been Born” by Nicole Sealey
39. “Hudson’s Geese” by Leslie Norris
40. “A Supermarket in California” by Allen Ginsberg
41. “The Promise” by Jane Hirschfield
42. “Church” by Jacqueline Woodson
43. “Shake the Dust” by Anis Mojgani
44.”Angels” by Mary Oliver
45.”Sad and Alone” by Maurice Manning
46. “Thank You” by Ross Gay
47. “Theories of Time and Space” by Natasha Trethewey
48. “When Love Arrives” by Sarah Kay & Phil Kaye
We just covered 48 of the best classic and contemporary free verse poems. Still need more to soothe your poetry fix? Check out these 15 delectable poems about food and eating.
