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Breaking Lines

From Lessons That Change Writers by Nancie Atwell. Breaking Lines.

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Breaking Lines

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  1. From Lessons That Change Writers by Nancie Atwell Breaking Lines

  2. “Beginning free-verse poets are often stymied by how to handle line breaks. Rhymed poems are obvious: lines end with words that rhyme. But in free verse, the length and content of a line are a matter of choice. So, how do you choose which words belong together as a line?” Beginner Poets

  3. How do your mind, eyes, ears—and even lungs—help you choose? MIND, EARS, and even lungs

  4. First, it’s important to realize that poetry is written to be SPOKEN. Free-verse poetry generally breaks its lines to emphasize the pauses a reader’s voice might make: line breaks signal the briefest of rests, breaths, or silences. Poetry is written to be spoken

  5. Most poets end their lines on strong words: nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Slicing a line at a weak word—an article, preposition, or a conjunction, like THE, OF, or AND—tells your reader to pause at in insignificant moment in the poem, rather than at a point of meaning. END ON STRONG WORDS

  6. Mary Oliver states, “The most important point in the line is the end of the line.” THE END OF THE LINE IS SOOOOOO IMPortant

  7. Read Molly’s poem “Rain Lullaby” with me and notice the strong words at the ends of her lines….. Now imagine if she 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 and hear how her poem would have been weakened? RAIN LULLABY

  8. HOW IMPORTANT THE ENDS OF HER (and YOUR) LINES ARE?

  9. Poets need to be aware of how their poems look on the page. Line breaks and stanzas are a poem’s form. Try to draft your poems in lines. You can always revise by shortening, lengthening, and moving lines later on. But it’s important in the future to try visualizing your draft right from the very start as a poem, not prose. BE AWARE OF HOW your poem looks

  10. Look at the first draft of Nora’s poem…which is just prose on the page. Nancie showed Nora how to insert double slash marks // at the points where she might break the lines—to listen for words, phrases, and sentences that seemed to belong together, and to notice the places in which she rested as she read her poem. NORA’s “RAIN POEM”

  11. The second draft shows how she marked it up. Nora then rewrote the poem, this time skipping down and starting a new line each time she hit one of her slash marks. Then she continued to cut and polish. Her final version is titled, “Revealing Rain.” NORA’s POEM

  12. Take a look at David’s poem. Notice how he made his lines short on purpose. The form of his poem mimics its subject—swim race. As a swimmer, David was moving, so his poem moves, too. It’s one long, fast stanza of short lines. DAVID’s POEM “Swim Meet”

  13. Poetry is meant to be spoken. Line breaks signal the briefest of rests, breaths, or silences. End on strong words (nouns, verbs, adj., adv.). The end of the line is very important! Try to draft your future poems in lines and think about the form you want it to take. Revise and polish by using double slash marks to show where you need line breaks in your rough draft. // REVIEW

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