What Is the Definition of Continuous Form in Poetry?
In continuous form poetry, words are not broken into rhythmic stanzas. In many other types of poetry, lines are often grouped in regular stanzas based on meter, or the rhythm of the words.
In continuous form poetry, the lines are divided by theme, mood or not at all. Because the lines continue into one another without divisions, it’s called continuous form. Shakespeare’s famous “To Be or Not to Be” soliloquy in “Hamlet” is a good example of this form. Other examples include “Paradise Lost” by John Milton, “The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot, and “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman.
Continuous form poetry is often written in free-verse, which means that the words are not written in any sort of rhythmic meter. However, this is not always the case. Looking again to Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” soliloquy, it is written in iambic pentameter as Shakespeare often did.
