6.8B - The student is expected to analyze the effect of meter and structural elements such as line breaks in poems across a variety of poetic forms.

• Poets use meter and structural elements to emphasize, combine, or isolate certain details and/or ideas. Establishing a rhythm or flow can help the reader understand where the poet means to stress or subordinate parts of the poem. For example, the use of a line break can show how images or ideas are connected (because the thought is not finished by punctuation) but also creates a pause that allows the reader to consider the importance or impact of that single line.
• line break: the visual end of a line, which may be used to emphasize rhythm and sound, create meaning and visual effects, and substitute for punctuation
• meter: the basic rhythmic structure in verse composed of the number of stressed and unstressed syllables per line
• stanza: a unit of poetry composed of lines that relate to a similar thought or topic—like a paragraph in prose or a verse in a song. Stanzas are separated from other stanzas by line breaks.