Free Verse and Open Form

International audienceThis chapter discusses ways in which British and Irish poets of the period 1960–2015 used the formal resources of free verse and open forms. Following a discussion of terminological and historical questions, work by major poets of the period, including Seamus Heaney, Geoffrey Hill, Ted Hughes, R. F. Langley, Maggie O'Sullivan, J. H. Prynne, Tom Raworth, and Denise Riley, is analyzed. Particular attention is paid to patterns of alignment and disalignment, and to rhythm, which is described using beat prosody