A stanza is a group of lines in a poem, separated by white space. The stanza is the body of the poem. Sometimes you’ll see stanzas of two lines, three lines, four lines—-or one long stanza. The stanza in free verse is a way to organize related ideas, a way to create a pause, a way to add emphasis to related lines.
A line break is a tool that the poet uses to create a particular effect, such as a pause or to emphasize an idea, word, phrase. Sage Cohen, author of “Writing the Life Poetic“ writes: “Lines act as the engine that moves the reader through a poem.”
A good understanding of syntax or sentence structure will help you write better poetry. Sentence structure contributes to the rhythm of a poem.
The style of a poem is determined by the poet’s decisions about word choice, syntax, poetic devices, and tone.
The best poets follow the rules and conventions of grammar. They use the active voice, write with concrete nouns and actions verbs, and use adjectives and adverbs sparingly.
In this post, I’ll discuss how to use the stanza, line break, syntax, and grammar to write good or memorable free verse poetry.
