American Literature / Unit 1 AML 0006 short lesson, about 20 seconds
The Line as a Unit of Meaning
Captions available
The idea
Prose is built from sentences and poetry from lines, and the line is the poet's instrument. Where a line ends a reader pauses slightly, punctuation or none, so a line's last word carries weight and the next line's first carries surprise.
In practice
The line end is a pause the poet chose.
Where people slip
Lines and sentences need not agree.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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