Literary terms · AP English Literature, AP English Language, SAT Reading and Writing, ACT Reading
Blank verse
Blank verse: Unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter, used widely in English drama and long poems.
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What it means
Blank verse keeps the rhythm of iambic pentameter but drops rhyme, giving it flexibility and a speech-like quality. It is the main verse form of Shakespeare's plays and of many long narrative and meditative poems.
Free verse is a separate form with no regular meter or rhyme.
Example
In a play, nobles might speak in blank verse while servants speak in prose, a contrast that marks social rank.
On the exam
In drama passages, shifts between verse and prose, or within the rhythm of verse, can be evidence about character and status.