The Poetic Line

A quick and easy guide to line breaks

The longer the line, the slower the action or the movement of the poem.

Use longer lines when you want the reader to slow down or the speaker in the poem is taking time to breathe.
Longer lines can also indicate ranting

The shorter the line, the faster the action or movement of the poem.

Use shorter lines when you want the reader to speed up or the speaker in the poem is in a hurry or excited.
Shorter lines can also indicate a simple mindset or persona.

Combine line lengths to speed up or slow down. When combined, the shorter lines become heavier and weighty with meaning. You are putting emphasis on the shorter lines because they stand out on the page from the longer ones.

This works the same way in reverse. A longer line will have emphasis in the midst of a lot of shorter lines.

LINE BREAKS and SPACE

The ends of your lines will emphasize the last word in the line of poetry.
Usually, the last word in a line is a noun. (Most lines end with nouns.)
Poetry without punctuation usually has nouns as end words in their lines so as not to confuse readers. (Most readers stop at the end of a line.)

In poetry that HAS punctuation, make sure you read to the period--do not pause at the end of a line or you will be confused.

Lines can also often end in a verb.
(lines ending in verbs stress the action happening in the poem)
Or an important word that the poet wants to stress

Space, in general, is used to show ‘emptiness’, scattered thoughts, parenthesis, and pausing.

Activity: Choose 1 or more poems that you have written the first draft of, rearrange the lines in a drastic way.
(If they were all together in one stanza, break them apart. If they were long lines, keep them short. If they were short--long....etc. Use spacing to show disjointedness or separation, etc.

Overall, play.