I don't know...sometimes? Perhaps it is the mark of a good poet, that he can feel the tension in the line before it breaks. I struggle with that. Hmm...that's not a good sign! :)
I've said in other places that if you did a survey of all contemporary poets and how the linebreak was handled, you'd probably find that the whole concern over linebreaks is arbitrary and capricious (or idiosyncratic) by and large, that there is no prevailing way of handling the line, no matter how much it is emphasized as the 'key element' in free verse poetics. Thus, it may all boil down to a matter of feel or trial & error, poem by poem. Jim F
2 comments:
I don't know...sometimes?
Perhaps it is the mark of a good poet, that he can feel the tension in the line before it breaks.
I struggle with that. Hmm...that's not a good sign! :)
Anna
I've said in other places that if you did a survey of all contemporary poets and how the linebreak was handled, you'd probably find that the whole concern over linebreaks is arbitrary and capricious (or idiosyncratic) by and large, that there is no prevailing way of handling the line, no matter how much it is emphasized as the 'key element' in free verse poetics.
Thus, it may all boil down to a matter of feel or trial & error, poem by poem.
Jim F
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