Line Breaks in Poetry
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A writer designs the poem on the page!
o Line breaks, indentations, and the lengths of individual words determine the visual
shape of the poem on the page.
o The aesthetic appearance on the page is important.
o How does the poem look on the page - Does the poem look light, delicate, with a lot of
white space around the lines? Or are the lines packed solidly together?
o You can emphasize a line by making it stand on its own, (but don’t over do it.)
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Where you break a line creates a meaning.
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Words at the end of a line carry a lot of weight. Words you place there have
emphasis. Try and end your line with a solid image or a verb.
o The writer calls attention to particular words by placing them at the beginning or
end of a line.
o What is the energy and propulsion of the line? Determine the key words and ideas in
your poem that hold all the feeling, the meaning of the poem. If you can, place
these key words at the end of each line to make their importance felt.
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A line break in poetry is the end of a line of writing—when a new line starts.
o This is usually but not always at the left margin.
o A new line can begin with a lowercase or capital letter.
o Line breaks are generally of a similar length.
o Lines that are much shorter or longer than the typical line of a poem call attention to
themselves.
 The meaning of those lines of variant length from the typical line need to be
lines with significant weight of meaning.
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Line length affects the rhythm and meaning of a poem.
The speed of reading - Shortening or lengthening the lines can speed up or slow down the way
people read.
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Similar line lengths give a sense of regularity
o Short lines, as a general rule, carry more weight than a long line.
o Short lines tend to sound more rhythmic. They can also be choppy.
o Short lines move the poem ideas at a slower pace than one with longer lines.
This happens because it is a typical habit of reading verse to include a full line
without taking a breath. The effect is best noticed when reading aloud.
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o
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Long lines tend to sound freer and more like poetic narrative
Lines that break at the end of a sentence (end-stopped lines) make the reader pause
and hold that thought.
Breaks that come in the middle of a sentence or clause drive the pace onward.
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A line break can:
o emphasize a pause or a silence
o signal a change of movement
o suppress or highlight certain internal features of the poem, such as rhythm.
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Enjambment is when a clause or phrase continues over a break.
Listen to the sound of the poem.
o Breaking the line in different places produces different tones, different rhythms.
 When you break the line on a natural pause, you add power to the pause.
o Try breaking the line where it would not normally be broken, in the middle.
 This works against the natural pause.
 This can create a sense of tension because the reader will be
forced to pause slightly where they would not normally pause,
and the reader is pulled to the next line.
 The pull will be stronger if you break on a verb instead of a noun.
 Enjambment can be interesting when used in a traditional form, adding a
bit of suspense to the line break.
Generally best to avoid:
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Ending a line on “a”, “the” or “of” because you don’t see anything.
Generally a strong way to end your line:
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With an image, a verb or a noun
Read the poem out loud. Have someone else read it to help you hear and see where the line
should break.
Experiment with line breaks. Try them at different places and see how that makes the poem
feel.
You have many options, but these choices should never be made randomly.
You may feel overwhelmed by so many issues to think about. How can your inspiration flow
freely if you have to keep track of all of these aspects of a poem? The answer is to do the work
in two stages.
1. First, let your ideas flow.
2. Then, go back to the poem later and work on improving the poem structure and form.
In the second stage, it's a good idea to experiment a lot. Try breaking the lines and different
ways and compare the effects. Try changing the order of things. Try reorganizing things to move
different words to the end of the lines so that the reader's attention goes to them. You've got
nothing to lose -- you can always go back to an earlier version.
As you go through this process, ask yourself:
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What is my poem about?
What feeling or mood do I want the reader to have?
Do I want the poem to move quickly or slowly?
Are there places I want it to speed up or slow down?
What words or phrases do I want to highlight?
There are a lot of things to consider. But the more poetry you write -- and read, the more
natural and instinctive some of these decisions about poem structure will become to you.
http://www.creative-writing-now.com/poem-structure.html