Which term refers to poetry without regular rhyme or meter?

• A. Rhyme
• B. Inversion
• C. Free verse
• D. Paradox

Answer: (C)

Free verse is poetry that doesn’t follow a regular rhyme or meter. Meter is the set rhythm pattern created by stressed and unstressed syllables, which gives traditional poems a steady beat. Rhyme is about matching sounds, usually at line ends or within lines. In free verse, these structured elements are set aside, and the poem relies on line breaks, natural speech rhythms, and phrasing to create musical flow and structure. That lack of a fixed metrical pattern or rhyme scheme is exactly what defines this form.

Rhyme would imply predictable sound repetition, so it isn’t the right fit here. Inversion refers to unusual word order, a syntactic twist, not the absence of meter. Paradox is a statement that seems self-contradictory, a separate concept altogether.