James Longenbach: The End of the Line (January 2002)

James Longenbach examines the different ways in which poets have used line (and, more particularly, the end of the line) to “annotate” the syntax of a poem. How can strategic line endings determine a reader’s experience of a poem’s temporal unfolding, as well as of its tone and meaning? Longenbach looks at examples of metered lines (Milton, Frost), syllabic lines (Moore), and modernist free verse lines (Pound, Stevens, Williams, H.D.) as well as more contemporary examples by Ashbery and Bidart.