Poetry Week Day Two: Line Breaks Aren't as Easy as You Think
Added 2024-10-22 05:47:48 +0000 UTCConductors show the orchestra when they should play slowly, when they should stop, and when they should speed up. In poetry, we conduct “orchestras” too, and one of the ways we set the pace of reading is with line breaks.
If you write
Your words
On separate lines with breaks
It’s a
Poem. That’s
What they
S
A
y.
This is why
We
See so many pieces of prose
With line
Breaks.
Because line
Breaks
Make everything
A poem.
Even if you put a Stephen King
Novel into line breaks
It would be
A
Poem.
</sarcasm>
No. Line breaks have functions. You shouldn’t use them unless you’re conscious of their purpose.
Commas are short pauses. Semicolons are longer pauses. Periods are even longer pauses, and line breaks are usually the longest pauses in the bunch. They serve a function. They contribute to the rhythm of the poem. Some line breaks can even speed up the pace at which your audience reads.
Yesterday, we read Plath’s “You’re,” which breaks lines in the middle of sentences.
If, for example, you
Place line breaks in the middle
Of sentences your
Readers will read it faster. This
Is magic!
If you
Want to create a
Frenetic pace, it helps to
Break lines in the middle
Of sentences.
Some
writers even
break in the mid
dle of words to
create a jagged and un
comfortable rhythm,
speed up the
pace of the audience’s read
ing or emphasise poetic
metre.
Some poets are so ingenious they use line breaks as a visual aid. Louis MacNiece’s Prayer Before Birth uses line breaks create the patterns of labour pains on the page. Towards the end of the poem, he also shortens the lines and places line breaks in the middle of sentences. This way, the poem becomes steadily faster and more desperate.
E.E. Cummings was equally brilliant. His poem, Grasshopper, used line breaks to create the pattern of a jumping insect.
Your line breaks matter. If your poem looks messy on the page, the odds are fair that you’re abusing your line breaks. As with so many things we learn in this workshop, line breaks should be a conscious choice.
Today’s exercise is to write a poem with a series of ORIGINAL and precise similes as we saw in Plath's “You’re.” It should use consciously chosen line breaks.
