Through the annotation and statistical analysis of a large corpus of French free verse, this project seeks to pinpoint recurring patterns specific to free verse, the very name of which bears an immediate contradiction. The apparently unregulated form of poetry sees some elements of regularity, remembrances of traditional verse, surface through echoes and avoidances. Their pinpointing is crucial to the interpretation of poetic texts, where form and the construction of meaning are closely intertwined. Bringing together distant and close readings, metrics, stylistics, and poetics, this project aims for a synoptic perspective.