Connections: Poetry: Forms: Blank Verse (2)

In the seventeenth century, John Milton altered the associations of blank verse by making it the form of Paradise Lost, his great epic poem. Milton took care to justify his unconventional use of the form, and we can hardly argue with his choice, but later writers re-established the conventional use of blank verse as a mode for representing sincere, conversational sentiments.

At the end of the next century, for instance, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge published Lyrical Ballads. (See the ballad section for commentary on the ballads included in that collection.) The poems in Lyrical Ballads use a variety of forms to portray speech from different historical periods and narrators. When the poets wanted to present sincere meditations in his own "voice," however, they generally employed blank verse. Here, for instance, are the opening lines of "Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey . . . ," the poem that ended the first edition of Lyrical Ballads in 1798:




Five years have past; five summers, with the length 

Of five long winters! and again I hear 

These waters, rolling from their mountain-springs 

With a soft inland murmur.--Once again 

Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs, 

That on a wild secluded scene impress 

Thoughts of more deep seclusion; and connect 

The landscape with the quiet of the sky. 

The day is come when I again repose 

Here, under this dark sycamore, and view 

These plots of cottage-ground, these orchard-tufts, 

Which at this season, with their unripe fruits, 

Are clad in one green hue, and lose themselves 

'Mid groves and copses. Once again I see 

These hedge-rows, hardly hedge-rows, little lines 

Of sportive wood run wild: these pastoral farms, 

Green to the very door; and wreaths of smoke 

Sent up, in silence, from among the trees! 

With some uncertain notice, as might seem 

Of vagrant dwellers in the houseless woods, 

Or of some Hermit's cave, where by his fire 

The Hermit sits alone.

Coleridge also wrote a series of "conversation poems," as he called them, which used easy, flowing blank verse to construct meditations arising from everyday situations. See, for instance, "Frost at Midnight."

Textbook Poetry Forms Heroic Couplets The Ballad The Ode The Sonnet Blank Verse Other Forms Free Verse Concrete Poetry Language Poetry Terms Scansion Web Resources Fiction Film Theory Contexts Research and Writing Research Writing Courses Tutorial 120 121 224 226 Seminars Site Information Site Updates Navigation Site Map	Blank Verse [Page 2] In the seventeenth century, John Milton altered the associations of blank verse by making it the form of Paradise Lost, his great epic poem. Milton took care to justify his unconventional use of the form, and we can hardly argue with his choice, but later writers re-established the conventional use of blank verse as a mode for representing sincere, conversational sentiments. At the end of the next century, for instance, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge published Lyrical Ballads. (See the ballad section for commentary on the ballads included in that collection.) The poems in Lyrical Ballads use a variety of forms to portray speech from different historical periods and narrators. When the poets wanted to present sincere meditations in his own "voice," however, they generally employed blank verse. Here, for instance, are the opening lines of "Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey . . . ," the poem that ended the first edition of Lyrical Ballads in 1798: Five years have past; five summers, with the length Of five long winters! and again I hear These waters, rolling from their mountain-springs With a soft inland murmur.--Once again Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs, That on a wild secluded scene impress Thoughts of more deep seclusion; and connect The landscape with the quiet of the sky. The day is come when I again repose Here, under this dark sycamore, and view These plots of cottage-ground, these orchard-tufts, Which at this season, with their unripe fruits, Are clad in one green hue, and lose themselves 'Mid groves and copses. Once again I see These hedge-rows, hardly hedge-rows, little lines Of sportive wood run wild: these pastoral farms, Green to the very door; and wreaths of smoke Sent up, in silence, from among the trees! With some uncertain notice, as might seem Of vagrant dwellers in the houseless woods, Or of some Hermit's cave, where by his fire The Hermit sits alone. Coleridge also wrote a series of "conversation poems," as he called them, which used easy, flowing blank verse to construct meditations arising from everyday situations. See, for instance, "Frost at Midnight."
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Erik Simpson \| simpsone@grinnell.edu