Metre (poetry) words made no difference to the metre. A number of other ancient languages also used quantitative metre, such as Sanskrit and Classical Arabic (but not Biblical Hebrew). Finally, non-stressed languages that have little or no differentiation of syllable length, such as French or Chinese, base their verses on the number of syllables only. The most common form in French is the Alexandrine, with twelve syllables a verse, and in classical Chinese five characters, and thus five syllables. But since each Chinese character is pronounced using one syllable in a certain tone, classical Chinese poetry also had more strictly defined rules,
Free verse spaced prose, a mosaic of verse and prose experience. Free verse Free verse is an open form of poetry. It does not use consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any musical pattern. Poets have explained that free verse is not totally free: "Its only freedom is from the tyrant demands of the metered line." Free verse displays some elements of form. Most free verse maintains the poetic convention of the poetic line to some degree, at least in written representations, Donald Hall goes as far as to say that "the "form" of free verse is as binding and as liberating as