Parlor Tricks and the Pumpkins
In my time as a poet, you can be sure I’ve seen plenty of theatrics acted out on the paper-stage. Well, not quite theatrics, more like parlor tricks really: gaudy, fiendish little things designed to bamboozle the reader, to make it seem as if a poem is more profound, more artistic than it actually is.
These tricks are cheap, offensive and, most of all, unconvincing to the savvy reader.
Let’s take a look at one of these tricks and then tear it to shreds.
LINE / BREAKS
Now, quite obviously, line breaks themselves are not the enemy here. They’re absolutely necessary in poetry. They affect the rhythm of the piece and the clarity of the ideas presented. Without them, a poem would simply be an absurdly long line that is truly tiresome to read.
That being said, all line breaks are not created equal. Abusing them for purely aesthetic reasons or sprinkling them around indiscriminately are most heinous deeds.
Let’s experiment:
And I don’t even care to shake these zipper blues…
A line from 1979 by the Smashing Pumpkins.
Watch me butcher it by adding random line breaks:
And
I don’t even
care to
shake these zipper
blues.
See?
Jarring, start-and-stop rhythm and no enhancing of meaning, just obfuscation.
Also, these line breaks isolate “blues” at the end, presumably for a more powerful poetic punch, but there’s nothing in the lyric to indicate that “blues” itself can stand alone without its intriguing modifier, “zipper.”
The lesson here is simply this: don’t break your lines haphazardly. Consider what effects a break will have on the rhythm of the piece and whether or not the break will undermine your attempts to communicate certain concepts (like “zipper blues”).
November 18th, 2009 at 8:36 am
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