Final answer:
Middle ages poetry often employed ballads with strict meters and rhyme schemes, while modern poetry tends to use free verse, allowing for more flexibility and personal expression.
Step-by-step explanation:
Poems that utilized ballads were the most common in the middle ages, while free verse is more common in modern poetry. The ballad, a form of narrative verse, was popular for its simple and accessible language, often set to musical accompaniment. In contrast, modern poetry frequently embraces free verse, which does not adhere to consistent meter patterns or rhyme schemes, reflecting a broader range of subjects and styles and allowing for more personal and innovative expression.
In the middle ages, poems like Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales" often used a strict meter and a fixed rhyme scheme, exemplified by the common ballad stanza with alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter. As literacy spread and the artistic focus shifted towards individual expression and the avant-garde, poets began to break away from these traditional structures. The shift towards free verse became significant, emphasizing the poem as a verbal, crafted object that allows for more flexibility and emotional depth.