What is the difference between prose and poetry? Well, that’s a hard and long question to answer but one of the most obvious differences is that of the line break. So the question at hand changes to something along the lines of ‘Why do we use line breaks?’ and that in and of itself is also a complex and difficult question to answer. What I intend to write is not an all-inclusive guide as to what is a line break, as I’m sure scholars could write an entire book on it, but jot some thoughts on how the line break can be used effectively.
The line break, to a poet, is not a random break that is based upon the use of meter. The way to look at a line break is another kind of punctuation except without any arbitrary rules. The line break forces the reader to pause and move to the next line. The effect of this can vary and in some case, the author may not want the thought to be broken by the line break. This leads to a number of challenges as to when to use a line break. As a general rule of thumb every line break should have more than just one purpose (and simply ending the line does not count as a purpose). An interesting example could involve what is called a transformation of sense; in this type of line break, the original idea or image imbues a certain feeling and then the line break changes the expected interpretation. For instance, if we take a rose, the immediate assumption is that we are talking about love, romance or some other clichéd expectation but if we follow this with a line break and follow with an image of the rose on a tombstone the image becomes complicated and interesting.
Working on the idea of interest, one of the primary objectives is to complete just that, the reader should want to read on past the line break. This is what makes the pause from a line break short as compared to long. A common problem that the line break deals with is being a misused because of the meter. Meter, another tool for poetry, restricts the number of feet per line and so many metrical poems force a line break after the respected number of feet. So when writing in meter, the line break becomes especially difficult. Looking at a common form, the sonnet, it becomes much more intimidating when you realize that the meter and rhyme both force different types of line breaks, yet, a line break shouldn’t be dictated by these.
To delve deeper into the line break would be exploring well below the surface of it and frankly way more writing than I want to do right now but at the very least I hope this has issued a little more respect to the line break and its use.
