Free Verse or Prose?

"...poetry has a different form from prose. "Prose," said Noah Webster, "is the natural language of man." He further stated that prose is loose and unconfined to poetic measures, as opposed to verse or metrical compositions."

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Let's begin by setting aside certain features of language. Ordinary talk between ordinary people uses ordinary language. Verbs do what verbs do; nouns do what nouns do. This is what we learned in grade school. So, we set aside certain features of language. Rhyme, for example, is a quintessentially poetic feature of language and rarely do we use in ordinary language; when we do, we laugh because it sounds so unnatural. And, yet, when used purposefully, when called to the foreground of an incident of language, rhyme takes on the dimensions of beauty. We have, of course, stepped from mere language into realm of literature.
Poetry and prose overlap considerably. There are, in fact, great traditions of poetic prose and prose poetry, so, on some level, it's foolish to imagine that there's a clear cut difference and never the twain shall meet. A scale must be properly drawn between them on which tendency associate towards one of the other. Organization of language (such as into stanzas) tends to associate with poetry, but there are, of course, exceptions. Lines, too, tend towards poetry; sentences toward prose. Meter tends toward poetry, but not extremely so. Metaphor, for example, is not commented on by the scale; it is accessible to both. And so on.

Poetry versus Prose

Poetry refers to poems, with or without rhyme schemes. Prose is writing a story,either fiction or nonfiction. Poetry and prose are both forms of expression in writing. Prose usually has fewer structural guidelines, and in some ways, that makes poetry more of an art form. Being able to express the same thought and image in fewer words, choosing more carefully, etc., makes poetry more difficult to master than prose.
Poetry has rhythm, like a song. Poetry has cadence, like a drum. Poetry may rhyme but, I'm not wrong, When I say it can be ho hum.
Poetry usually follows a set pattern, rhyme scheme and meter. It is an art form in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities. Prose is simply regular writing, like in a story, a letter, or regular speech. There are usually no patterns, just sentences and paragraphs.
Prose writing most often follows standard rules in grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and sentence structure. Poetry often doesn't, for expressive reasons, and every word, period, etc. is carefully chosen to say the most using the least words.
Prose is the language of everyday speech, or the writing medium that mimics it. Poetry is a more refined or structured or rhythmic form of prose.
Poetry has a shrinking readership. This is mainly because of competition from other media, but partly because poetry written in the last 50 years is perceived to have not been up to past standards.
On the other hand, there is a lot of modern poetry that is quality. Whether or not the readership is going down in some circles, there are remarkable poets who have been active during the last 50 years, and hopefully will continue to be.
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Many definitions exist for poetry and for prose, and the characteristics are very blended and the border between them made very grey - the above answers are all correct, in a way.
I, however, think that the difference between poetry and prose is that poetry ought to be written linearly whereas prose is that which is to be structured into paragraphs. Coleridge defined poetry as "the right words in the right order" and my father always said "maximal meaning in minimal wording", but I would reckon that this line/paragraph differentiation is the best way to separate."

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the distinction is between prose and verse.

prose comes from a latin word meaning 'straight ahead' (prorsus). in prose the words begin at the left hand margin and then carry on until they have said what they are going to say (usually in a paragraph).

verse comes from a latin word meaning 'to turn a corner' (vertere). in verse the words begin at the left margin, carry on until they reach a certain point (the end of the line) then turn around and begin from the left margin all over again.

poetry is usually written in verse, which is why people think poetry and verse are the same thing (and get confused). but poetry doesn't have to be written in verse. blake's poetic books, the biblical psalms (in translation), the works of ossian and lautréaumont, and much of thomas traherne are all examples of poetry written in prose."

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"prose:

Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin prosa, from feminine of prorsus, prosus, straightforward, being in prose, contraction of proversus, past participle of provertere to turn forward, from pro- forward + vertere to turn — more at pro-, worth
Date: 14th century
1 a : the ordinary language people use in speaking or writing b : a literary medium distinguished from poetry especially by its greater irregularity and variety of rhythm and its closer correspondence to the patterns of everyday speech."

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“I wish our clever young poets would remember my homely definitions of prose and poetry; that is, prose—words in their best order; poetry—the best words in their best order.” —Samuel Taylor Coleridge 

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http://www.types-of-poetry.org.uk/91-prose.htm


"Poetry (from the Greek "ποίησις", poiesis, a "making") is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning. Poetry may be written independently, as discrete poems, or may occur in conjunction with other arts, as in poetic drama, hymns, lyrics, or prose poetry.
Poetry, and discussions of it, have a long history. Early attempts to define poetry, such as Aristotle's Poetics, focused on the uses of speech in rhetoric, drama, song, and comedy.[1] Later attempts concentrated on features such as repetition, verse form and rhyme, and emphasized the aesthetics which distinguish poetry from prose.[2] From the mid-20th century, poetry has sometimes been more loosely defined as a fundamental creative act using language.[3]
Poetry often uses particular forms and conventions to suggest alternative meanings in the words, or to evoke emotional or sensual responses. Devices such as assonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia, and rhythm are sometimes used to achieve musical or incantatory effects. The use of ambiguity, symbolism, irony, and other stylistic elements of poetic diction often leaves a poem open to multiple interpretations. Similarly, metaphor, simile, and metonymy[4] create a resonance between otherwise disparate images—a layering of meanings, forming connections previously not perceived. Kindred forms of resonance may exist, between individual verses, in their patterns of rhyme or rhythm.
Some forms of poetry are specific to particular cultures and genres, responding to the characteristics of the language in which the poet writes. While readers accustomed to identifying poetry with Dante, Goethe, Mickiewicz and Rumi may think of it as being written in rhyming lines and regular meter, there are traditions, such as Biblical poetry, that use other approaches to achieve rhythm and euphony. Much of modern British and American poetry is to some extent a critique of poetic tradition,[5] playing with and testing (among other things) the principle of euphony itself, to the extent that sometimes it deliberately does not rhyme or keep to set rhythms at all.[6][7][8] In today's globalized world, poets often borrow styles, techniques and forms from diverse cultures and languages.
The beauty, the power and the effect of a poem rarely depend on styles, technique and forms solely. The essential elements, like rhythm, rhyme, forms, etc. are only a framework of a poem, and none of these are as important as the topic and especially the choice of words. Great poems differ from others exactly because of these, because their words invoke thoughts and powerful feelings in the listener or reader. Some poets, like the Hungarian József Attila, wrote exceptional poems with words combined in sentences that achieve meaning greater than the sum of the meanings of the words. Some of these became sayings in the everyday language. Across time and cultures the meaning of the words change, and make it difficult to enjoy the original beauty and power of poems."

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