Recently I was Zooming with some lovely poets. One of the poets read a prose poem that went on and on without stopping to take a breath. Not only did I feel a bit overwhelmed—and not in a good way—but I was saddened, because I could not get a moment to take in and reflect upon her many great images and wonderful word choices. Everything rushed by in such a blur I lost the emotional impact as well. I just wanted to reach through the screen, shake her and say, slow down! Give me a break—or two, please. Let me relish a bit of your language, and your message.
Let Us See/Hear the Breaks
I’m a strong believer in delivering breaks to a listener when reading, or performing, aloud. We should feel the silences and shifts in the way the poem is spoken—both the caesurae (pauses), and the stanza cuts.
Sometimes, the poet has created such a dense package, that reading such a poem on the page can be exhausting. This can be especially noticeable in prose poems. There’s nothing wrong with breaking those thick paragraphs into multiple paragraphs or sections.
What Is a Stanza?
You can probably tell that I’m ranting a bit. I’d like to present a case for the use of stanzas.
First, what is a stanza? It’s a section of lines or a single line, set off from the rest of the poem by spacing before and, often, after. Essentially, they’re building blocks within your poem. In Italian, the word stanza means room.
Of stanzas, poet Billy Collins says “You’re taking the reader on a tour of the poem, room by room, like taking someone through your house and describing it.”
Each stanza, like each room in your home, has a specific function. Each may be arranged differentl—unless you’re writing in formal verse in which the stanzas, and often the line lengths and meter are part of that formal layout.
For this discussion, let’s assume that you’re not writing to a prescribed pattern. So, you’re free to
devise your own stanzas—what’s in each, how long each one is, and what purpose each one serves.
The common reasons to break into a new stanza is a shift in action, perspective, speaker,
time, tension (pacing), or for emphasis. That white line (or two) between stanzas tells your reader
something’s happening here.
Why Stanzas Are Important
Regardless of the change that precipitates a stanza break, the empty lines before and after are places of rest—a place for your reader to think about what you’ve written/spoken. And to understand any shift in the poem. It’s a moment to reflect, breathe, and then carry on.
Sometimes it is easily understood why there’s a new stanza. Or it may take a bit of getting to know the poem in order to feel that the stanza structure works. By works, I mean does it serve the poem? Connoisseurs of poetry know that stanzas do not simply appear willy-nilly.
Creating Stanzas
Some poets feel more comfortable using a regular patterning for all their poems, writing only in couplets, tercets, quatrains, or what have you. Some poets like to work out the stanzas given the subject matter, so that the poem as it appears on the page supports the subject/mood. Those stanzas may not be equal in length or width. Within one poem some whole or partial stanzas may be left-justified, and others might not be. In these poems the poet is using white space to present the poem in a way that enhances its understanding, or its emotional, philosophical, musical impact.
Do all poems need stanzas? No. Of course not. Now, don’t think I’m going back on everything I’ve just said!
Very short poems may not need stanzas—certainly not many of the Japanese forms. And even slightly longer poems can get by without stanzas if a lingering or drawn-out effect helps the poem.
I have a friend who wrote a dreamscape of a poem about wandering lost/or not lost in a field. It has no stanzas, though it goes on for two pages. It works because the endless wandering is what the poem is about. And, of course, there are caesurae within it—commas, dashes, ellipses, and sentence end punctuation. These are places to take a quick breath while you wander.
Considerations In the Use of Stanzas
The question to ask is, will this poem be enhanced by stanzas and will they help its
readers, or listeners? If so, how should the poem be divvied up?
You might like the look of regularity on the page and use quatrains throughout. Or you can do as some poets do and use numbered sections for an especially long poem, or poems that have multiple sections that differ from each other in a significant way such as in tone, subject, POV, change of persona, major time shift, etc.
Whichever way you decide to lay your poem out, do consider stanzas if it is going to be a longer poem, or a complicated one. And as I said earlier, even shorter poems may benefit from stanzas.
Keep your readers in mind and give them a break occasionally—please!
Lee Gramling
As a non-poet but a one-time actor and theatre director, I’m inclined to interpret your example in terms of performance rather than authorship. One of the hardest things to get a novice actor to do is take a full-fledged, honest PAUSE. But of course it’s always the pauses that contain the greatest meaning and emotional “punch.” That said, I fully endorse the use of stanzas or any other device that will make a writer seriously think about where the pauses belong — and why. (In fiction, I often use the short one-sentence paragraph for the same effect.)
Shutta Crum
Thanks, Lee. You’re absolutely right. T.B. Burnett once said something to the effect that “soft is loud.” Unfortunately, once someone is off and running, it’s hard to stop them and say…please…slow it down, give us space at important moments. I think with young poets, as with newbie actors, there is simply not the breath of experience yet. And I like the example of the short paragraph in fiction. Thanks!
Shutta