Line length in poetry

[milo]

I was talking about the science of when we read aloud. We exhale air in order to produce sound and the physical sound pressure wave doesn't actually match the words or syllables. I would like to see someone read one of Shakespeare's sonnets so that I could actually see the sound wave and where breathes are actually taken. You can say that the line is a breath, but I would be curious if science could back any of it.

Just on another note, average resting respiratory rate for an adult is between 12 and 18 breathes a minute, so that means 3.3 to 5 seconds per breath. That's quite a variation; also when someone is excited, the rate goes up, meaning less time per breath. Actually billy's joke about "why about people with asthma?" does highlight this in a way. People will have very different physical experiences when reading a poem aloud. Reading mentally could also be quite different.

But of course, poets aren't noted for wanting to be scientific about the physical world.

And how does any of this tie back to the line length in English poetry and how it affects reading speed?

The last line about poets and science is, as usual, completely inaccurate and unsupportable but I suppose that really shouldn't be a surprise.