blank verse: see pentameter pentameter [Gr.,=measure of five], in prosody, a line to be scanned in five feet (see versification). The third line of Thomas Nashe's "Spring" is in pentameter: "Cold doth / not sting, / the pret / ty birds / do sing.
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blank verse

Unrhymed verse, specifically unrhymed iambic pentameter, the preeminent dramatic and narrative verse form in English. It is also the standard form for dramatic verse in Italian and German. Adapted from Greek and Latin sources, it was introduced in Italy, then in England, where in the 16th century William Shakespeare transformed blank verse into a vehicle for the greatest English dramatic poetry, and its potential for grandeur was confirmed with John Milton's Paradise Lost (1667).

blank verse

Prosody unrhymed verse, esp in iambic pentameters

Blank Verse

(literally from the French vers blanc, which can be traced back to the English “blank verse”), unrhymed verse in syllabic and tonic syllabic versification.

Blank verse should not be confused with ancient metrical or Russian bylina (epic folk song) verse, for which rhyme was not at all characteristic. The similarity or alternation of fixed “closures” (the endings of the verse lines) plays the structural role of rhymes in blank verse. Because it lacks a rhyme system, blank verse is characterized by a lack of stanzas or weak stanzas and a great deal of freedom and verbal flexibility.

In Russia, blank verse was first used in syllabic versification by A. D. Kantemir and in tonic syllabic versification by M. V. Lomonosov. Blank verse was used by A. N. Radishchev (Bova and Ancient and Historical Songs; on blank verse, see his Journey . . . , the chapter “Tver’ ”) and V. A. Zhukovskii.

Blank verse (usually iambic pentameter) is associated primarily with dramatic genres (for example, Shakespeare’s plays; in Russian literature, A. S. Pushkin’s Boris Godunov and “Little Tragedies” and A. K. Tolstoy’s dramatic trilogy). Examples of blank verse in Russian poetry include Pushkin’s poem “I Visited Anew,” M. Iu. Lermontov’s “If That’s Your Voice I Hear,” and V. A. Lugovskii’s narrative poems “The Middle of the Century.”

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No references found	[7] If the invasion of the legitimate sphere of prose in England by the spirit of poetry, weaker or stronger, has been something far deeper than is indicated by that tendency to write unconscious blank verse, which has made it feasible to transcribe about one-half of Dickens's otherwise so admirable Barnaby Rudge in blank-verse lines, a tendency (outdoing our old friend M. The Guardian by Pater, Walter Horatio View in context I wrote, I wrote everything--ponderous essays, scientific and sociological short stories, humorous verse, verse of all sorts from triolets and sonnets to blank verse tragedy and elephantine epics in Spenserian stanzas. John Barleycorn by London, Jack View in context For a time, so steeped was he in the plays and in the many favorite passages that impressed themselves almost without effort on his brain, that all the world seemed to shape itself into forms of Elizabethan tragedy or comedy and his very thoughts were in blank verse. Martin Eden by London, Jack View in context	Blanco State Park Blanco, Antonio Guzmán Bland County Bland, Richard Parks Bland-Allison Act Blanda, George blandel blank blank arcade blank bit blank carburizing blank casing blank cell blank character blank door blank flange blank form blank holder blank jamb blank laptop blank medium blank nitriding blank squash blank tape blank tape halting problem Blank Verse blank wall blank window Blank, Karl Blank, Karl Ivanovich Blankenburg blanket blanket cloth blanket cylinder blanket deposit blanket encumbrance blanket gas blanket grouting blanket insulation blanket sand blanketflower blanketing blankholder slide blanking blanking circuit blanking level Blanking Pulse blanking signal blanking time Blanqui, Auguste Blanqui, Louis Auguste	blank laptop Blank line blank medium blank nitriding Blank Ordering Agreement blank out blank out Blank recordable CD Blank recordable CD Blank Recordable CDs Blank Recordable CDs Blank Rome Government Relations Blank Sentences blank shell blank slate blank slate blank slate blank slate Blank Slate Theory blank space blank squash blank stock Blank Stocks Blank tape blank tape halting problem Blank Tape Spillage Fete Blank tire Blank tooling Blank Transfer Blank Transfers Blank Verse Blank vote Blank Wafer Endpoint Detection Blank wall Blank wall blank window blank window Blank, Karl Blank, Karl Ivanovich Blank-Check Companies Blank-Check Company Blank-verse Blank-verse blanked blanked blanked blanked blanked Blankenburg Blankenburg, Thuringia Blankenship Commercial Real Estate Services blanker blanker blanker blanker blanker blankest blankest blankest blankest blankest

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[7] If the invasion of the legitimate sphere of prose in England by the spirit of poetry, weaker or stronger, has been something far deeper than is indicated by that tendency to write unconscious blank verse, which has made it feasible to transcribe about one-half of Dickens's otherwise so admirable Barnaby Rudge in blank-verse lines, a tendency (outdoing our old friend M.

The Guardian by Pater, Walter Horatio View in context

I wrote, I wrote everything--ponderous essays, scientific and sociological short stories, humorous verse, verse of all sorts from triolets and sonnets to blank verse tragedy and elephantine epics in Spenserian stanzas.

John Barleycorn by London, Jack View in context

For a time, so steeped was he in the plays and in the many favorite passages that impressed themselves almost without effort on his brain, that all the world seemed to shape itself into forms of Elizabethan tragedy or comedy and his very thoughts were in blank verse.

Martin Eden by London, Jack View in context