Verse

Verse - as related to show tunes or by extension jazz standards.

An introduction to a piece of music in standard form, usually sung out of time of with great freedom. Often used as a method of advancing plot in a musical before the sometimes out of context lyrical content of the tune.

Some well known examples include Lush Life, Some One to Watch Over Me, I'm Old Fashioned, and Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered

Humpty Dumpty

The shell-shockedspectators

Suffered post traumatic stress
As the cavalry arrived in force
To clear the gruesome mess.

They cordoned off the area,
Removed the last remains,
Flushed away the evidence
And washed it down the drains.

There are rumours of a cover-up
Concealment of a scandal,
With more insinuations
Than the gutter press can handle.

But questions still remain,

The autopsy was rushed,

And the verdict from the coroner
Was double-sealed and hushed.

Did he fall or was he pushed?

It is not mere speculation,
It is more than just a hunch.
A Wikileak revealed the troops
Had scrambled egg for lunch!

Verse (?), n. [OE. vers, AS. fers, L. versus a line in writing, and, in poetry, a verse, from vertere, versum, to turn, to turn round; akin to E. worth to become: cf. F. vers. See Worth to become, and cf. Advertise, Averse, Controversy, Convert, Divers, Invert, Obverse, Prose, Suzerain, Vortex.]

1.

A line consisting of a certain number of metrical feet (see Foot, n., 9) disposed according to metrical rules.

Verses are of various kinds, as hexameter, pentameter, tetrameter, etc., according to the number of feet in each. A verse of twelve syllables is called an Alexandrine. Two or more verses form a stanza or strophe.

2.

Metrical arrangement and language; that which is composed in metrical form; versification; poetry.

Such prompt eloquence Flowed from their lips in prose or numerous verse. Milton.

Virtue was taught in verse. Prior.

Verse embalms virtue. Donne.

3.

A short division of any composition.

(a)

A stanza; a stave; as, a hymn of four verses.

Although this use of verse is common, it is objectionable, because not always distinguishable from the stricter use in the sense of a line.

(b) Script.

One of the short divisions of the chapters in the Old and New Testaments.

The author of the division of the Old Testament into verses is not ascertained. The New Testament was divided into verses by Robert Stephens [or Estienne], a French printer. This arrangement appeared for the first time in an edition printed at Geneva, in 1551.

(c) Mus.

A portion of an anthem to be performed by a single voice to each part.

4.

A piece of poetry.

Pope.

Blank verse, poetry in which the lines do not end in rhymes. -- Heroic verse. See under Heroic.

© Webster 1913.

Verse, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Versed (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Versing.]

To tell in verse, or poetry.

Playing on pipes of corn and versing love. Shak.

© Webster 1913.

Verse, v. i.

To make verses; to versify.

It is not rhyming and versing that maketh a poet. Sir P. Sidney.

© Webster 1913.