Sam, your memory is pretty good. On p. 224 of
The Book of Forms: Revised and Expanded Edition (2012), Lewis wrote this:
Free verse is lineated prose, for if 'verse' is defined as 'metered language' and 'prose' as 'unmetered language,' then the term 'free verse' is a contradiction in terms because 'verse' cannot be 'free,' for it is 'metered.' The only other possibility, then, is that 'free verse' is prose broken into lines, 'lineated' by some means or other . . . .
If you try to look up "free verse" in the General Index of the same edition, you are told to "
See prose."
However, we needn't interpret any of this to mean that free verse is somehow not a legitimate style of poetry; merely that the term itself is a misnomer. It might be more appropriate to call such poetry "free
of verse."
Also, throughout the book there are a number of exemplary poems by some guy named R. S. Gwynn. Perhaps you know him?
Nice to hear from you again.
Ted