What Is a Prose and Verse

Prose is the term for any sustained wodge of text that doesn’t have a consistent rhythm. Poetry or verse is different: verse has a set rhythm (or meter), and it looks distinctive on the page as the lines are usually shorter than prose.

What does verse mean in Shakespeare?

Verse in Shakespeare refers to all the lines of a play that follow a specific pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. This pattern creates a metrical rhythm when the lines are spoken aloud. Shakespeare most often wrote in blank verse – blank meaning that it doesn’t rhyme – arranged in iambic pentameter.

What does prose represent?

Prose refers to ordinary speech with no regular pattern of accentual rhythm. Lines of text do not all have the same number of syllables nor is there any discernible pattern of stresses.