Learning To Love Line Breaks

Learning To Love Line Breaks

When you are writing a poem it is important to keep in mind that line breaks are as important to free verse poems as end rhyme is to a poem written in rhyming couplets.

You should aim to keep the words that belong together on the same line.

You may wish to emphasize a word or a phrase by placing it on a line all by itself. By carrying the word over to the next line it may add a greater degree of suspense or surprise to the poem.

You may arrange line breaks in your poem to create a visual effect with regard to the shape of the poem.

If there is a repeated refrain, it might help to isolate those important words on a line each time, to draw greater attention to them.

On other occasions, it just feels right to break the lines in a certain way. Don’t be afraid to experiment.

To help you gain some experience with line breaks, I invite you to take these deconstructed poems and recreate them using your own line breaks. Have fun…

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