Preservation of line shape in the performance of a poem

Abstract

The easiest way to perform a poem is to disregard its line endings and read it as simply a collection of sentences. A more difficult—and more satisfying—mode of performance allows audience members to perceive the poem's intellectual meanings, conveyed in sentences, and also those emotional meanings revealed through the poem's metrical rhythms and rhythmic variations. One source of those meanings is the rhythmic statement derived from the poem's line shapes. This paper investigates line shape in modern and earlier poems and makes some suggestions for their preservation in performance.