Twenty Ways to Use Line Breaks

Barbara Daniels

1. show readers how to say a poem aloud or read it silently

2. indicate where readers should pause or breathe; force pauses and enforce

silences; control the flow of words and ideas; indicate hesitations

3. mark units of syntax (meaningful groups of words); emphasize single, separate

thoughts

4. break up phrases to surprise readers; focus attention on words readers wouldn’t

otherwise pay special attention to

5. substitute for punctuation

6. please or attract the eye or ear

7. indicate rhythms and rhythmic units; change the tempo of a poem; speed up or

slow a poem down

8. embody perception, so that the reader sees the poet’s mental processes enacted on

the page

9. make a poem look more even or more uneven

10. illustrate the idea in a line

11. indicate a change in tone

12. give a sense of immediacy and urgency; heighten tension

13. impose form on otherwise chaotic material; signal regularity, control, balance,

and pattern

14. follow the conventions of a particular form, breaking after a specified number of

syllables or after a certain number of stresses

15. refuse form to indicate a lack of order; indicate lack of control

16. invite readers into a poem

17. show that this is poetry, so it deserves a different kind of attention—privileging

the poem, indicating that it is art rather than plain speech

18. demonstrate that emotion or intense experience has broken through; create

excitement

19. make the poem feel less natural, less clear; push readers away

20. increase clarity; make the poem feel more natural; move readers closer

According to Charles Wright, “In poems all considerations are considerations of form.” He also argues that dwelling on line breaks rather than on lines as units of meaning is a mistake. He claims, “Only technique can tell us what we don’t know,” and “Each line should be a station of the cross.” Diane Wakoski says, “Line breaks are priests inviting you to kneel for prayer.”

Mary Oliver says of the pause at the end of a line: “This pause is part of the motion of the poem as hesitation is part of dance.” Denise Levertov argues that the pause at the end of a line lasts about half as long as a pause for a comma.

Some of the ideas on this sheet come from The Ohio Review, Issue 38.