Experimenting with line breaks:

What differentiates poetry from prose writing, (among many other distinguished  characteristics) is the artist’s choice to deconstruct lines into fragments. Through the use of line breaking, poetry becomes a stylistic art form, where the materiality of the words on the page becomes another vehicle for the artist to convey meaning/feeling.

But, what determines the specific principle of lineation that a poem follows? There are more traditions methods, such the metrical or rhythmical line, where the poem follows a certain pattern of stresses (or “Iam”s) per line. Or the syllabic method, where the line scheme is concerned with the number of syllables each line holds. Many times, the poem’s line breaks are concerned with the way the poem is held in the body, so that each line corresponds with the breath — these poems are easily spoken.

But… If you’re anything like me, your line breaks constitute a resistance. A way of subverting the traditions methods. If you’re anything like me your line breaks are utterly meaningless, random, and without method.

For the purposes of this piece, I will recast an old poem, playing around with it’s lineation, to see what results.

Original Poem: 

Relineated Poem:

E.G.C