Did Walt Whitman invent free verse?
No, but also, what really is free verse?
If we want to know who 'invented' free verse, the first examples are some of the psalms, for example, psalm 23 by King David. Whether you consider Psalms to be poems or not is your choice, but I do, so here it is. After the Psalms, humans apparently became too intelligent to write without rhyme and rhythm. While Dante did write 'The Divine Comedy', perhaps the most important poem of all time, in free verse, it was fairly rare and obscure to write that way. Many resources claim the French literary movement, 'Vers libre' is responsible for bringing free verse to the mainstream. Is it though? As far as I know, you don't get more mainstream than Walt Whitman, and many of his writings are in free verse. Granted, he too wrote in approximately the same time period as this movement, but I still believe he wrote his poems a few years before this movement started (1886).
All of this is great, but do I like free verse? that's a subjective thing that also depends on the topic of the poem. For me, I believe that a poem that deals with topics that need a significant amount of thought, or even are just written complexly, does not benefit from free verse. That is why I do not prefer Emily Dickinson writing in free verse. It does sound nice and complex, and impressive, but it really hurts the purpose of the poem. Walt Whitman, on the other hand, through his poems, tells a story, for the most part. Which, inevitably, benefits from writing in the free verse. It provides the poet with a certain independence and lets him/her convey what they want to, without the constraints of the patterns and rhymes.
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How do I prefer it? Well ,it's complicated. While reading, I definitely prefer the rhymes, when they are done good. While analysing a poem, too, rhyme structure definitely helps. While reading, though, I would very much like some freedom. Although I am a literal noob in writing poetry, I would say some words just got to be used and they don't have rhymes. This has happened quite a few times and none of you know about it because I never published them. None of, well, none. Anyway, if you are reading, leave a comment with your opinion.
That's it then!