Understanding Poetry: Fixed Forms **vs** Free Verse All poems have form, regardless if the poem is fixed or not-closed or open. The form of poetry is how the lines are arranged to display the content. Essentially, the form is how it is composed-whether there is a type of structure or not, if there is a pattern or not. The fixed form however, follows a specific set of instructions of how the poem is composed. This type of poem has a specific type of meter, rhyme scheme, or refrain---or the stanza itself can have its own form. There is a plethora of fixed forms out there-from a sestina to a haiku (and beyond) that has its own specific set of rules. Free verse does not have a specific meter which consists of rhyming patterns and so on, but it does have form. You're free to break the poem into any line you desire, you're free to not rhyme. What you're not free to do, however, is to compose a bunch of ramblings together and call that free verse poetry. Free verse poetry has...