nonverse

Nonverse is a literary term used to describe writing that does not conform to verse form or traditional lineation. In criticism, it is often used to describe prose, or prose-like works, that avoid the rhythmic and visual conventions associated with poetry, such as regular meter, rhyme, and line breaks. The term is formed from the prefix non- and verse, and its usage is more common in discussions of hybrid or experimental writing than in standard poetry criticism.

Distinctions: Free verse is a type of verse that lacks regular meter but still belongs to poetry; nonverse, by contrast, is not organized as verse at all. Prose poetry occupies a contested middle ground; some readers classify it as verse because of its poetic language and rhythm, while others label it nonverse because it uses prose sentence structure.

Usage and reception: Nonverse is not a universally recognized formal category and is more often encountered as a descriptive label in academic writings about poetics, genre blending, or experimental literature. Critics may employ the term to signal a departure from traditional lineation or to discuss the rhetoric and cadence of prose forms that resemble poetry in style without adopting verse.

See also: Prose, Prose poetry, Free verse, Vers libre.