Finding the Light: Illuminating Line Breaks

Eureka!  We've seen the light about line breaks!  In library classes, we've been exploring this useful poetic tool.  Line breaks may occur at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a thought.  They change the pace of a poem, asking readers to stop or to continue, to speed up… or to pause and think.  Line breaks highlight a word or image, and they help a rhyme along.  When they work their magic, line breaks turn prose paragraphs into magnificent poetry! 

First, we read the paragraph:

Light Bulb by Juan Olivarez

The light bulb shines in my eye.  In its ray of light I see hope.  It offers a bright future.  I feel a sense of optimism than can only be felt by a child learning to read for the first time.  I fee tranquil, serene.  When the switch is flicked off.  Shhhhh.  Darkness arrives and everything changes.

After a lesson about line breaks, we read the poem:

Light Bulb

by Juan Olivarez

The light bulb

Shines in my eye

In its ray of light I see

Hope

It offers a bright

Future

I feel a sense of

Optimism

That can only be felt by a child

Learning to read for the first time

I feel

Tranquil

Serene

When the switch is flicked

Off

Shhhhh

Darkness arrives and

Everything

Changes

Fresh from a Writer’s Notebook: Check out a Lafayette Original that makes good use of line breaks, transforming a personal narrative paragraph into an expressive poem about a Cape Cod experience:

The Surprise

Then 

He

came up 

to the boat

He

swam away

but

We followed him

We followed him

Until the water

got too shallow

His gray head

disappeared

under the sea

heading back

to his

seal family.

-- Jack W.

Finally, we share Helen Keller, written by American poet Langston Hughes and performed by Emma and Grace.  The poem features powerful line breaks and pays tribute to an American heroine’s spirit and courage... her inner light.  

Helen Keller

She,

In the dark,

Found light

Brighter than many ever see.

She,

Within herself,

Found loveliness,

Through the soul’s own mastery.

And now the world receives

From her dower:

The message of the strength

Of inner power.

--Langston Hughes

Poetry not only helps us see the light, it helps us feel the light.