Using different scholars, define prose?

1. According to the Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, prose is defined as "the ordinary form of written language, without metrical structure, as distinguished from poetry or verse."

2. The literary critic Northrop Frye describes prose as "the language of everyday speech, the language of information and argument, the language of newspapers and textbooks."

3. The literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin views prose as "the most flexible and versatile form of language, capable of expressing a wide range of ideas and emotions in a straightforward and accessible manner."

4. The philosopher and literary critic Roland Barthes defines prose as "the medium through which writers can communicate complex ideas and emotions in a clear and direct manner, without the constraints of poetic form."

According to Aristotle (c. 384-322 BCE)

"Prose is the ordinary mode of speech." (Poetics)

According to Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343-1400)

"Prose is when thou writest a letter to a friend." (Prologue to The Canterbury Tales)

According to Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

"Speech is more hasty and cursory than writing...; because in speech a man speaks out of the sudden, and before he has had time to pause upon that he speaks." (Of Studies)

According to David Hume (1711-1776)

"Prose is a discourse which seeks to inform or persuade." (On the Standard of Taste)

According to Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)

"Prose is words in their best order." (Biographia Literaria)

According to Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

"Prose is the language of truth." (The American Scholar)

According to James Joyce (1882-1941)

"Prose is rhythm without meter." (Ulysses)