(1) Blank verse, unrhymed iambic pentameter, the preeminent dramatic and narrative verse form in English. Its richness and versatility depend on the skill of the poet in varying the stresses and the position of the caesura (pause) in each line, in catching the shifting tonal qualities and emotional overtones of the language, and in arranging lines into thought groups and paragraphs.

(2) Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, introduced the meter, along with the sonnet to England in the 16t h century. Christopher Marlowe developed its musical qualities and emotional power. Shakespeare transformed the line and the instrument of blank verse into the vehicle for the greatest English dramatic poetry. John Milton, later has restored blank verse to live in his Paradise Lost (1667), Edward Young, William Wordsworth, P. B. Shelly, John Keats, and Robert Frost have all applied blank verse in their works. It is a great and long-lasting poetic form indeed.