Verse

Verse

/vərs/

noun

1) writing that follows a metrical pattern

“The one who writes a poem writes it above all because verse writing is an extraordinary accelerator of consciousness, of thinking, of comprehending the universe.”

– from On Grief and Reason: Essays, by Joseph Brodsky (1940 – 1996)

2) one line of poetry

“Thus a verse strictly speaking is a line.”

– from The Rationale of Verse, by Edgar Allan Poe (1809 – 1849)

3) one of the numbered subdivisions in a chapter of the Bible

“Time after time in my ministry, I have quoted a Bible verse in a sermon—sometimes without planning to do so in advance—and had someone tell me afterwards that it was that verse which the Holy Spirit used to bring conviction or faith to him.”

– from The Infallible, Everlasting Word of God, by Billy Graham (1918 – 2018)

verb

4) to make familiar, knowledgeable, or skilled

“Surely if students while versing themselves in the classics were to have a liberal education in the art of speaking their own language with fluency and clearness—not only would the stage gain, but those professions that relied so much upon oratory—the Church, the bar, and the arena of politics.”

– from The Daily News, 4 October 1895, contributed by George Alexander (1858 – 1918)