E. LINES
The presence of rhyme, rhythm and, sometimes, of alliteration serves to
identify and define other textual patterns. The most obvious result of the
occurrence of rhyme is the determination of line boundaries. A line is
identified, first of all, by the number of feet or stresses and their
corresponding sequences; then by the presence of rhyme. It is perhaps too
superfluous to say that rhyme marks the end of a line (more rarely, the end
of a half-line or HEMISTICH, if there is internal rhyme). Yet the fact that
poets wanted and still want to mark the ending of lines is indicative of the
need to understand their role as textual verse-units, both formally and
referentially.
Formally, lines can be used as the frame within which practically all
prosodic effects can be activated and sequenced. Rhythm can be used to
enhance the expression of modulation, but this function is achieved when
the rhythm continuum is segmented into lines: the effects are expressed not
by the mere presence of trochaic or anapaestic feet, but by their sequencing
into groups of four or three feet. In this sense, rhythm and line length may
work together in the modulation of textual contents. So, as a general but
very variable rule:
- the iambic pentameter can be considered the standard format for
grave or formal poetry (like Spanish ‘endecasílabo’, which is the
standard among the ‘versos de arte mayor’)
- the the iambic or trochaic tetrameter, the standard for popular,
informal and lighter poetry (like Spanish octosyllabic lines, which
are also the standard of ‘versos de arte menor’) due to its relatively
lower semantic density.
o Both types should also be considered the more neutral forms
if compared with the more extreme alternatives at either side
of the spectrum. The difference in mood may be enhanced,
too, by the joint effect of rhyme. So, for example, the lighter
overtones of short lines could be intensified with the use of
double rhyme sequenced in couplets.
But as a rule, once more, we should be cautious in our
consideration of the value of these effects, and should
discriminate between what line length can help to
express according to extratextual conventions and what
it can do in a specific text. In all cases, we should
always bear in mind that the mood is given by the
meaning of the words, not by the form of the text alone.
End-stopped lines and run-on lines
Referentially, lines serve also as the basic frame for the expression of
specific and relatively self-autonomous pieces of information. In this sense,
the physical boundary which the rhyming words may offer is
conventionally intensified by the occurrence of some kind of grammatical
pause and the consequent adaptation of syntactic units (mostly clauses
and/or phrases) to the format of the lines.
- End-stopped lines: In classical and traditional poetry, most lines
end with a grammatical pause, not always necessarily explicit:
these are called END-STOPPED LINES.
- Run-on lines: Sometimes, however, the author may intentionally
ignore the norm of ending the line with a grammatical pause: this
phenomenon is commonly called ENJAMBEMENT; and the lines
affected by it, RUN-ON LINES.
The function of enjambement
It is commonly held that enjambement is also used as:
- a marker of a certain emotional mood, a mood that would in theory
be felt by the poet when writing the poem: hence the ‘disorder’ of
the correspondence between lines and syntactic structure, or as
- a sign of the author’s challenge of traditional conventions.
- However, a great deal of the cases of enjambement are not caused by
the speaker’s emotional disorder, but by the more practical need to
organize the text into larger-than-lines referential units, in
correspondence with more complex syntactic structures such as
sentences.
More clues for analysis
- The recognition of these units can be extremely helpful in our
organization of textual reference when we reach the stage of
semantic analysis.
- Grammatical pauses are not necessarily marked by punctuation
marks.
- The effect of enjambement becomes remarkable when it co-occurs
with strong pauses placed inside the lines, especially when these
pauses are placed in different positions within each line.
- Enjambement may convey no emotional colouring. A too abrupt
rupture of syntactic continuity may be due to the fact that it has
become the pattern of the whole text.