Line Breaks

[just mercedes]

I've never actually thought much about line breaks while I'm writing - they go where they want, I'm just writing down the first draft. When I go back and revise, I'll play around with them.

Some forms mean you're working within an artificial boundary, with line breaks predetermined. With free verse they're about more than pauses, for me. They can emphasize words, ideas, sounds, rhymes, as well as relationships between all of those. They can change the way you the reader receive the same information.

Gwendolyn Brooks comes to mind, but just because she featured in my first lesson at CalTech today, which was all about Line Breaks. (Are you doing that course too?)

Anyway, just because I love it, her poem -

We real cool

The Pool Players.
Seven at the Golden Shovel.


We real cool. We
Left school. We

Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We
Die soon.

Gwendolyn Brooks, “We Real Cool”

Those line breaks reinforce the message of her poem in a very clever way. Compare their impact, with

We real cool.
We left school.
We lurk late.
We strike straight. etc