Soul Train: Line Measure

Free verse line theory almost never discusses rhythm in some understandable way. It’s usually about breath or field or tension or context. If rhythm is discussed at all, it is something mentioned in passing, maybe as some force with which one must reckon. That’s why William Watkin’s comment on how rhythm works (“I don't know and nor does anyone else it would seem.”) is so revealing. His honesty is disarming, but the meaning is still loaded. Whereas rhythm in formal poetry is something orchestrated by meter, in free verse that orchestration is missing. Individual instruments of the free verse poet play in the pit with no instructions from some higher power but the poet. Each is a first instrument, whether it be metaphor, alliteration, or the sense of sound. Maybe that’s why the concept of the line in free verse is so poet-specific. Rhythm is a little like soul: you either got it or you don’t.