Creative Writing 5-4

Creative Writing Unit 5 - 4

Poetry, Part 2

Lines, Sentences, and Stanzas

​5-1 Due Date 4/24

5-2 Due Date 4/26

5-3 Due Date 5/01

5-4 Due Date 5/06

5.5.2 CST & 5.5.3 TST Due Date 5/9

​ OBJECTIVES

• Explore how line breaks and lengths, end words and enjambment, and syllabic and metrical counts can make or break a poem's musical qualities.

• Explore stanzas, stanza breaks, and sequence poems.

• Write a poem working with sound and rhythm, with attention to line and stanza shape.

​5.4.1 page 1

​Probably the easiest way to tell the difference between a poem and a piece of prose is to notice the poem's line breaks, the places where the lines end.

Lines of prose usually spread across the page and break according to the page's width. Readers are not meant to perceive a difference in meaning between the following two passages:

Sara Jane walked delicately along a rift she perceived in the
land at the ocean's edge, where the fine-grained, wave-
smoothed sand gave way to rougher terrain, mottled with
black and yellow pebbles, uncrushed and anti-uniform.

Sara Jane walked delicately along a rift she perceived in the land at the ocean's edge,
where the fine-grained, wave-smoothed sand gave way to rougher terrain,
mottled with black and yellow pebbles, uncrushed and anti-uniform.

​5.4.1 page 2

​A writer is able to use line breaks to organize language in different ways, and each way might suggest a subtle difference in meaning.

​ RIFT

At the ocean's edge
wave-smoothed sand
gives way
to rougher terrain:
black and yellow pebbles
uncrushed.

​RIFT

At the ocean's
edge wave-smoothed
sand gives
way to rougher
terrain: black
and yellow
pebbles uncrushed.

​5.4.1 page 3

​When the lines of a poem end without punctuation, we call this enjambment. The alternative to enjambment is end-stopping, or ending lines at a natural pause marked by a comma, period, or other punctuation mark.

Check out this stanza from the poem, "The Fall of Rome," by W. H. Auden:

​Altogether elsewhere, vast
Herds of reindeer move across
Miles and miles of golden moss,
Silently and very fast.

​This stanza contains both enjambed and end-stopped lines.

Enjambed lines:

Altogether elsewhere, vast
herds of reindeer move across

End-stopped lines:

Miles and miles of golden moss,
Silently and very fast.

​In poetry, enjambment can create a "cliffhanger" effect in the reader. Read this line:

Altogether elsewhere, vast

We can't help thinking, "vast what?" The enjambment propels us forward to the next line to find out the answer to our question.

You can also use enjambment to create lines that seem to mean one thing but end up meaning something else.

Look at these sample lines. Taken by itself, what does the first line mean? How does that meaning change when you get to the second line?

I was going to leave
you a note.

​5.4.1 pages 4 and 7

​5.4.1 page 11

​What Rules the Breaks?

You've probably seen poems that seem to follow specific rules for where lines must break. Let's look again at the stanza from W. H. Auden's "The Fall of Rome":

Altogether elsewhere, vast
Herds of reindeer move across
Miles and miles of golden moss,
Silently and very fast.

Looking at these lines, what do you notice about the "rules" that determine where each line should end? Think about sound effects such as rhyme, meter, and rhythm. Are any of these sound effects at play in the stanza?

​5.4.1 page 14

​Some poems have lines broken according to syllabic counts rather than metrical counts. Syllabic counts simply count the number of syllables in a line, without paying attention to stresses.

​From "The Fish," by Marianne Moore

wade
through black jade.
   Of the crow-blue mussel-shells, one keeps
  adjusting the ash-heaps;
    opening and shutting itself like
an
injured fan.
  The barnacles which encrust the side
  of the wave, cannot hide
   there for the submerged shafts of the

sun . . .

​5.4.1 Review

​

• Line breaks are one of the main elements that separate poetry from prose. Poets intentionally break their lines to bring out meaning and movement in a poem.

• Enjambment is when a line breaks without any punctuation.

• Using enjambment can make the reader feel propelled forward through the poem. It can also create a temporary meaning in a line, which then changes as the reader continues.

• End-stopping is when a line breaks on a comma, period, or other punctuation mark.

• Varying the use of end-stopping and enjambment can make the effects of each stand out more strongly.

• Some poems follow rules, such as metrical counts and syllabic counts, which determine where lines break.

• Enjambment and end-stopping can be used in harmony with or in tension to lines that follow metrical and syllabic counts.

​5.4.3 page 2

​Just as line breaks divide the language of a poem into smaller units of meaning, a stanza break divides groups of lines into another kind of unit. A stanza break is where one stanza ends, leaving a space on the page before the next stanza begins.

Like line breaks, stanza breaks are deliberate choices that influence the reader's experience of a poem. Stanza breaks group certain lines together and create empty spaces that the reader must cross to reach the next group of lines.

​5.4.3 page 5

​A couplet is a two-line stanza. Check out an example of a poem written in couplets below.

​5.4.3 page 8

​You've probably seen poems with longer stanzas, too. A stanza with three lines is called a tercet, and a stanza with four lines is a quatrain. Like couplets, these stanza forms can be rhymed or unrhymed.

​5.4.3 page 10

​Some poets use their stanzas to create a sense of progression through time or to suggest other patterns or meanings. They may even number or title their stanzas, emphasizing the pattern they create. This form is called a sequence poem. It's easy to recognize, because each stanza or group of stanzas begins with a number.

​
1.
Begin with flour
begin small, pressing warm
dry hands in soft
white volcanoes.

2.
Butter is for when
the child is older. Butter
burns too easily and turns
too easily
to oil.

3.
At sixteen,
flavors change.

​Notice how the numbered stanzas suggest the phases in a process. Here, the process is the growth of a child, but a sequence poem could be about any progression through time, space, or some other series of ideas.

​5.4.3 Review

• Stanza means "room" in Italian. We can think of stanzas as creating separate spaces in a poem.

• Poets sometimes organize their stanzas in terms of the number of lines in each.

• Couplets are two-line stanzas.

• Tercets are three-line stanzas; quatrains are four-line stanzas.

• Stanzas of any length can be rhymed or not.

• Stanzas grouped by number of lines may be unified in other ways, too. They may contain images or ideas that go together.

• Stanzas don't have to be grouped by number of lines. Many poems use stanzas of varying or irregular length.

• Sequence poems number each stanza or group of stanzas to set it apart. This creates a sense of progression in the poem.

​5.4.5 Practice

​Write a poem using alliteration, assonance, and different kinds of rhyme. Use what you have learned about rhythm, meter, lines, and stanzas to shape the sounds of your language in exciting, interesting ways. Your poem should be at least 10 lines long.

• Use alliteration, assonance, and at least one type of rhyme.

• Create a pattern, either using meter or a certain number of syllables in your lines.

• Use a mix of end-stopping and enjambment.

• Group your lines into at least two stanzas.

​Respond to ME in the CHAT:





Briefly...... make me sure that you understand enjambment.