So I have been thinking about line lengths lately. I am working on a set of poems loosely set in ancient Greece, which has led me to sorta kinda use iambic pentameter, which means ten syllables with an unstressed followed by a stressed syllable, times five. But sometimes for the sake of either a conversational sound or to end a line on a solid word (generally not a preposition, although I am not opposed to that), I add or take away a few syllables. The Alexandrine line, so called because it was frequently used by Alexander Pope, the misogynist bastard, is twelve syllables, and I recall my English teachers saying that he chose it because twelve syllables is about the maximum you can say on a single breath. But the poem I wrote today about the Roman criminal punishment of crucifixion (you have remember that all this has been inspired by Xena: Warrior Princess) has lines of fifteen or more syllables and I think the breath is fine. It might be that shorter syllables take less breath, I suppose, which would make sense if you set a poem to music and hold some notes longer, probably frequently the longer syllables.
I guess for the most part, I am looking for a line of three to four inches in Times New Roman 12 point font, though how I got that line length, I have no idea. The writer of the blog Optional Poetry uses extremely short lines, sometimes only a few words. What kind of line lengths do you use in your poetry?
Also, this Viking Bunny appeared in my email inbox today, so I am doing you the favor of sharing. Pass it on.
buildingapoem 
I come for the poetry analysis, but I stay for the Viking Bunnies.
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As well you should.
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Viking Bunnehs! Perfect in every way. 😀
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Thanks for the shout-out! The problem is that having started writing in very short lines, longer lines now feel bulky and overwrought…
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You will come back to them when you need them. Different projects require different elements.
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“I’ve got a feeling . . . it might be bunnies . . . “
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Correction — I meant “I’ve got a theory . . . it might be bunnies . . . “
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Makes up for my stuck on a feeling mistake.
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I’m both old-fashioned and incredibly backward, so since I had minimal tech training in poetry (or writing, for that matter), I didn’t even play with the sonnet form until very recent years. But I find it suits my windy ways, and I like the lulling quality of the iambs; maybe as a wildly dyslexic person I just like that literally offbeat, somewhat backward approach! All the same, given my massive paucity (is that a mutually exclusive word pairing?) of formal training + my teensy attention span, I like dabbling in all sorts of patterns and rhythms and line lengths and, well, *whatnot*. 😀
In short, this makes everything *you* do look that much more intimidatingly Correct! But I’m not such an old dog I can’t learn from you. 🙂
Cheers,
Kathryn
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