--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: the next time you hear someone in a…" description: "\"“the next time you hear someone in a workshop remarking on how good a particular free-verse line or passage sounds, scan it. The odds are that it will ..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/756/annie-finch-55000_free-verse_the-next-time-you-hear-someone-in-a-work_2932564.jpg" --- # the next time you hear someone in a workshop remarking on… ![“the next time you hear someone in a workshop remarking on how good a particular free-verse line or passage sounds, scan it. The odds are that it will fall into a regular metrical pattern.” quote by Annie Finch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/756/annie-finch-55000_free-verse_the-next-time-you-hear-someone-in-a-work_2932564.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/756/annie-finch-55000_free-verse_the-next-time-you-hear-someone-in-a-work_2932564.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/756/annie-finch-55000_free-verse_the-next-time-you-hear-someone-in-a-work_2932564.jpg) > ““the next time you hear someone in a workshop remarking on how good a particular free-verse line or passage sounds, scan it. The odds are that it will fall into a regular metrical pattern.”” [Annie Finch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/annie-finch/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. When evaluating a poem, check if it unintentionally follows a regular meter, as many free‑verse lines do. **In simple terms:** Scan verses for hidden meter. Key Takeaway Be aware of hidden rhythmic patterns. Themes poetry analysis critical listening form awareness Mood analytical curious Type educational inspirational When to use this quote - writing workshops - literature classes - self‑editing - peer review Key Concepts literary criticism prosody Questions to Reflect On - How does form influence meaning? - When is free‑verse truly free? A Different Perspective Focusing on meter may overlook thematic depth. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Free verse](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/free-verse/) [Metrical Pattern](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/metrical-pattern-4331012/) [Next time](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/next-time/) [Passage Sounds](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/passage-sounds-4331015/) [Poetics](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetics/) [Poetry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/) [Poets](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poets/) [Regular Metrical](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/regular-metrical-4331013/) [Time](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/time/) [Verse Line](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/verse-line-4331014/) ## Related quotes > [“With women poets we look at or into, but not up at, sacred things; we unlearn submission.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alicia-ostriker/with-women-poets-we-look-at-or-into-but-not-up-at-sacred-things-we/) [Alicia Ostriker](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alicia-ostriker/) > [Signs of a maddening system of writing and counting that calibrates the values of something the poet does not yet know. 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Actions that are…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jen-besemer/i-make-work-that-is-many-things-at-once-poems-that-are-prose-that-are/) [Jen Besemer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jen-besemer/) > [Poetics is a science for stammering poets.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/shirley-geok-lin-lim/poetics-is-a-science-for-stammering-poets/) [Shirley Geok-lin Lim](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/shirley-geok-lin-lim/) > [“The novel has accompanied man uninterruptedly and faithfully since the beginning of the Modern Era. It was then that the "passion to know," which…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/milan-kundera/the-novel-has-accompanied-man-uninterruptedly-and-faithfully-since/) [Milan Kundera](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/milan-kundera/) > [The formal stuff feels old and windy. Not to say you shouldn't know prosody. But it's a wonderful time for exploratory poetics. Contemporary poets…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anne-waldman/the-formal-stuff-feels-old-and-windy-not-to-say-you-shouldn-t-know/) [Anne Waldman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anne-waldman/) ## More by Annie Finch > [“A Blessing on the Poets Patient earth-digger, impatient fire-maker, Hungry word-taker and roving sound-lover, Sharer and saver, muser and acher, You who are open…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-finch/a-blessing-on-the-poets-patient-earth-digger-impatient-fire-maker/) [Annie Finch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/annie-finch/) > [“After all, what is lyric but the seamless fusion of formal control and passionate conviction, in the service of the expression of personal experience?”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-finch/after-all-what-is-lyric-but-the-seamless-fusion-of-formal-control-and/) [Annie Finch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/annie-finch/) > [“I feel the nights stretching away thousands long behind the days till they reach the darkness where all of me is ancestor.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-finch/i-feel-the-nights-stretching-away-thousands-long-behind-the-days-till/) [Annie Finch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/annie-finch/) > [“Criticism is like politics: if you don't make your own you are by default accepting the status quo and are finally yourself responsible for…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-finch/criticism-is-like-politics-if-you-don-t-make-your-own-you-are-by/) [Annie Finch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/annie-finch/) > [“. . .criticism is to poetry as air is to a noise: it allows it to be heard; and even if we can't see…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annie-finch/criticism-is-to-poetry-as-air-is-to-a-noise-it-allows-it-to-be-heard/) [Annie Finch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/annie-finch/) [Explore all 6 Annie Finch quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/annie-finch/) ## More Free verse quotes > [“Leaches Ten Tall by Stewart Stafford Don't play this game with me, Predatory whelk of tide pools, Taint me as Rigoletto to a bawd,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stewart-stafford/leaches-ten-tall-by-stewart-stafford-don-t-play-this-game-with-me/) [Stewart Stafford](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stewart-stafford/) > [Among those today who believe that modern poetry must do without rhyme or metre, there is an assumption that the alternative to free verse…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-fenton/among-those-today-who-believe-that-modern-poetry-must-do-without/) [James Fenton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-fenton/) > [“I am a poet writing frenetic free verse I am pretentious”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-h-hanson/i-am-a-poet-writing-frenetic-free-verse-i-am-pretentious/) [Michael H. Hanson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-h-hanson/) > [Teenagers are free verse walking around on two legs.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dorothy-allison/teenagers-are-free-verse-walking-around-on-two-legs/) [Dorothy Allison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dorothy-allison/) > [Free verse is chained in sentence-to-sentence links and breaks free in line breaks.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/shirley-geok-lin-lim/free-verse-is-chained-in-sentence-to-sentence-links-and-breaks-free/) [Shirley Geok-lin Lim](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/shirley-geok-lin-lim/) > [“A midst deceit I found the truth; there in the rough I found a diamond. And from the moment we met, I think of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/donato-dicristino/a-midst-deceit-i-found-the-truth-there-in-the-rough-i-found-a-diamond/) [Donato DiCristino](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/donato-dicristino/) > [“If You Knew What if you knew you'd be the last to touch someone? If you were taking tickets, for example, at the theater,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ellen-bass/if-you-knew-what-if-you-knew-you-d-be-the-last-to-touch-someone-if/) [Ellen Bass](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ellen-bass/) > [“vers libre," (free verse) or nine-tenths of it, is not a new metre any more than sleeping in a ditch is a new school…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/g-k-chesterton/vers-libre-free-verse-or-nine-tenths-of-it-is-not-a-new-metre-any/) [G.K. Chesterton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/g-k-chesterton/) > [“Dead Butterfly By Ellen Bass For months my daughter carried a dead monarch in a quart mason jar. To and from school in her…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ellen-bass/dead-butterfly-by-ellen-bass-for-months-my-daughter-carried-a-dead/) [Ellen Bass](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ellen-bass/) > [“If there has been one overriding change in poetic practice, it is that under the influence of free verse the poets have made a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/martin-langford/if-there-has-been-one-overriding-change-in-poetic-practice-it-is-that/) [Martin Langford](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/martin-langford/) > [“Sanity is a sonnet with a strict meter and rhyme scheme-and my mind is free verse.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/holly-schindler/sanity-is-a-sonnet-with-a-strict-meter-and-rhyme-scheme-and-my-mind/) [Holly Schindler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/holly-schindler/) > [“In the poetry of arrival, the garage door is free verse; the front door can be anything from a rhyming couplet to a sonnet.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/akiko-busch/in-the-poetry-of-arrival-the-garage-door-is-free-verse-the-front-door/) [Akiko Busch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/akiko-busch/) > [“in the end it is words poetry. sunsets someone’s deep blue silk voice. mountain scents. someone’s smile. eyes. that we have no defenses against.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sanober-khan/in-the-end-it-is-words-poetry-sunsets-someone-s-deep-blue-silk-voice/) [Sanober Khan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sanober-khan/) > [Modernism in other arts brought extreme difficulty. In poetry, the characteristic difficulty imported under the name of modernism was obscurity. But obscurity could just…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-fenton/modernism-in-other-arts-brought-extreme-difficulty-in-poetry-the/) [James Fenton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-fenton/) > [Free verse'? You may as well call sleeping in a ditch 'free architecture'.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gilbert-k-chesterton/free-verse-you-may-as-well-call-sleeping-in-a-ditch-free-architecture/) [Gilbert K. Chesterton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gilbert-k-chesterton/) [Browse all 57 Free verse quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/free-verse/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“the next time you hear someone in a workshop remarking on how good a particular free-verse line or passage sounds, scan it. 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