Line Breaks and Stanzas and Rhythm

Since free verse does not rely on meter, the poet can use stanzas and line breaks to establish rhythm in a poem. When we were reading novels earlier in the semester, we discussed how the writer teaches us how to read the story. I think that the poet teaches us how to read the poem through line breaks. Line breaks give us sense of rhythm and movement in the poem, or they can be used to suddenly throw the rhythm off, to make us feel uncomfortable and perhaps stumble through a poem.

Where the line ends in free verse is important, because whatever word the line ends on, that word will recieve more emphasis by virtue of its placement at the end. I noticed that in the poem "Backroad," every line ended with a noun or a verb, which helps create a strong visual image or action.

In "Backroad" there are not many lines that are end-stopped. When I read the poem, the line breaks caused me to continue reading from one line to the next, creating a kind of flow in the poem. When I went back and read the poem again, I deliberately read each line by itself, scrutinizing how the words in the line interacted and produced an active image. For me, looking at each line closely added more meaning and depth to the poem.

I also noticed in the poem, each stanza is like a new scene, or segment of the memory. The stanzas move the reader through time. The poem moves from winter into spring, where the emotional content of the poem is reached.

I think that line breaks and stanzas in free verse a just a couple of tools that can be used to add rhythm, and also create meaning in a poem.