The basic building-block of prose
(writing that isn't poetry) is the sentence. But poetry has something else --
the poetic line. Poets decide how long each line is going to be and where it
will break off. That's why poetry often has a shape like this:
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying.
Old Time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying.
That's the beginning of a poem by
Robert Herrick. No matter where it is printed, the first line always ends with
the word "may" and the second line with the word "a-flying"
because the poet has written it this way. If you print a piece of prose such as
a short story, the length of the lines will depend on the font size, the paper
size, margins, etc. But in poetry, the line is part of the work of art you have
created. The length of the lines and the line breaks are important choices that
will affect many aspects of the reader's experience:
- The sound of the poem - When people read your poem out loud, or in their heads, they will pause slightly at the end of each line.
- The speed of reading - Shortening or lengthening the lines can speed up or slow down the way people read.
- How the poem looks 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?
- Emphasis - Words at the end of a line seem more important than words in the middle.
Types of lines
If you are writing a poem in a
standard form such as a sonnet, your choices about line length are somewhat
restricted by the rules of the form. But you still have to decide how to fit
the ideas and sentences of your poem over the lines. When you fit natural
stopping points in a sentence to the end of your line, the reader takes a
little pause. When a sentence or phrase continues from one line to the next,
the reader feels pulled along. If your line break interrupts a sentence or idea
in a surprising place, the effect can be startling, suspenseful, or can
highlight a certain phrase or double-meaning.
Lines that finish at ends of
sentences or at natural stopping points (for example, at a comma) are called end-stopped
lines. Here's an example:
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying:
Old Time is still a-flying:
Lines that in the middle of the
natural flow of a sentence are called run-on or enjambed lines. Here's
an example:
But being spent, the worse, and
worst
Times still succeed the former.
Times still succeed the former.
Here, Herrick interrupts the phrase
"worst times" with a line break between "worst" and
"times," focusing extra attention on the word "worst."
If you are writing in free verse,
you have even more decisions to make than a poet writing in a traditional form.
You can decide to use short lines or long lines, or to vary the length. You can
decide to stack your lines evenly along the left margin, or to use a looser or more
graphical form. Some poets even write poems that are in the shape of the thing
they are writing about, for example, a circular poem about the moon. You have
many options, but these choices should never be made randomly.
Stanzas
In prose, ideas are usually grouped
together in paragraphs. In poems, lines are often grouped together into what
are called stanzas. Like paragraphs, stanzas are often used to organize
ideas.
For example, here are the two final
stanzas of the Robert Herrick's poem. In the first of these stanzas, he is
explaining that being young is great, but life just gets worse and worse as you
get older. In the second one, he is saying: "So get married before you're
too old and have lost your chance."
That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.
Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry:
For having lost but once your prime,
You may for ever tarry.
And while ye may, go marry:
For having lost but once your prime,
You may for ever tarry.