prose and verse
Literature's two modes
Prose and verse are the two fundamental modes of written language.
Prose is ordinary continuous writing—sentences flowing into paragraphs without deliberate rhythmic structure.
Verse is language arranged in lines with attention to rhythm, meter, or pattern.
The phrase often appears in contexts distinguishing poetry from everything else: She studied both prose and verse, a master of prose and verse alike.
- classical literatureFoundational Western texts
- narrativeAccount of events
- short storyBrief prose fiction
- sonnetFourteen-line metered poem
- iambic pentameterUnstressed-stressed pattern, five feet
heroic couplet · metaphor · haiku · enjambment · exposition · limerick · simile · Romanticism · rhyme · imagery · essay · meter · Modernism · epic · alliteration · ballad · ode · assonance
prose and verseoral tradition
Culture passed by speech
spoken word · oral literature · oratory · folk tradition · song
prose and verseplain speech
Unembellished verbal expression
everyday language · technical writing · vernacular · small talk · common speech
prose, verse, prosaic, prosaically, prosody, versed, versify, versification, verses