Breaking Lines From Lessons that Change Writers

By Nancie Atwell

Confusion on How to Handle Line Breaks

Rhymed poems are obvious: lines end with words that rhyme.

Free-verse poetry is different: length and content of line are a matter of choice.

SO…how do you choose which words belong together on a line?

Poetry is Written to be Spoken Free-verse poetry normally breaks its lines to

emphasize the pauses a reader’s voice might make.

Line breaks signal the briefest of rests, breaths, or silences. The poet Mary Oliver compared poetry to dance

—She says the pause “is part of the motion of the poem, as hesitation is part of the dance.”

End Your Lines on Strong Words

Most poets end their lines on strong words: Nouns Verbs Adverbs Adjectives

Don’t Slice at a Weak Word Slicing at a weak word—an article (a, an, the);

preposition (in, from, on, to, with); or conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so)http://www.english-grammar-revolution.com/list-of-conjunctions.html

--tells your reader to pause at an insignificant moment in the poem, rather than at a point of meaning.

Mary Oliver reminds us: “The most important point in the line is the end of the line.”

Molly’s Poem “Rain Lullaby” Read Molly’s poem with me. Notice the strong words at the

ends of her lines. Imagine if Molly had broken her

first line at the, or her second line at on or our, or the third line at the word even.

Can you see/hear how her poem would have been weakened?

Do you understand how important the ends of lines are?

How Does Your Poem Look on Its Page? Be aware of how your poem looks on the

page. Line breaks and stanzas are a poem’s form. Try to draft your free-verse poetry in lines. You can always revise (shorten, lengthen,

move) later on, but try and visualize your draft as a poem, not prose, right from the start.

What is Prose? "Prose is the ordinary form of spoken or written language: it

fulfills innumerable functions, and it can attain many different kinds of excellence. A well-argued legal judgment, a lucid scientific paper, a readily grasped set of technical instructions all represent triumphs of prose after their fashion. And quantity tells. Inspired prose may be as rare as great poetry--though I am inclined to doubt even that; but good prose is unquestionably far more common than good poetry. It is something you can come across every day: in a letter, in a newspaper, almost anywhere."(John Gross, Introduction to The New Oxford Book of English Prose. Oxford Univ. Press, 1998)

http://www.types-of-poetry.org.uk/91-prose.htm

Too Difficult for You Right Now? If this is too difficult

for you when you begin your free-verse poem…it’s ok.

Enter your poem as prose, then go back into your draft later and divide it into lines.

Nora’s “Rain Poem” Let’s look at Nora’s first draft. Nancie showed Nora how to insert double slash

marks at the points where she might break lines—to listen for words, phrases, and sentences that belonged together…to notice where she breathed and rested as she read her poem.

Let’s see how Nora marked up her second draft. Nora then rewrote her poem: revising, cutting, and

polishing it. Her final version is now titled, “Revealing Rain.”

David’s Poem About a Swim Meet

Do you see how he made his lines short on purpose to mimic his subject?

As a swimmer, David was moving, so his poem moves, too: one long, fast stanza of short lines.

A Word About Punctuation… Commas are not necessary, they are

redundant. The white space at the end of the line signals the

reader to breathe or rest. The comma is redundant and not needed.

Use commas, periods, dashes sparingly.

A Word About Capital Letters… Many beginning poets play it safe, and

capitalize every first word in a new line of their poem. As a result, the power of a lot of good poems gets

undercut by doing this.

Today, most free-verse poets capitalize the first word of sentences in their poem or proper nouns.

Important Points to Remember… Your mind, eyes, ears, and…

even lungs should help you choose where to put your line breaks & stanzas.

Most poets end their lines on strong words: Nouns Verbs Adverbs Adjectives

Don’t slice at a weak word. Be aware of how your poem looks on the page. Line breaks and stanzas are a poem’s form. Commas are not necessary, they are redundant. Today, most free-verse poets capitalize only the first word of sentences in

their poem or proper nouns.

For the rest of class today…please go through your rough drafts of your poems and put double slashes where you believe your line breaks should be.

Have a friend read your drafts out loud and see if they agree with where you put your line breaks.

Tomorrow we will have a lesson on Stanzas.

Poetry is Awesome!