[Aaron Novick]

I'm curious as to yinz's favorite single lines, by which I mean lines that stand out even removed from the context of their poem. Of course I would love to see the lines accompanied by discussion of what makes them so great. Not a mere listing of favorites, that is, but favorites as specimens for analysis aimed at answering the question, What makes a good line?

I'll start with a line that seems to me frankly insurpassable, by Gerard Manley Hopkins:

As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame

Let's start with the imagery. We have two flying animals, each catching light in a different way. The kingfisher "catches" the light of the sun in a radiant fashion, while the dragonfly (flying near a candle I take it) appears to draw the flame upward to itself. So, a beautiful image.

But it's the sound of the line that makes it great. Sprung rhythm involves both primary and secondary stresses, and the interplay between them in this line is intricate. Here's a scansion, using acute accents for primary stresses and grave accents for secondary stresses:

As kíngfìshers cátch fìre, drágonflìes dráw fláme

So we have an alliterative series of primary stresses (king-/catch and drag-/draw) and and alliterative series of secondary stresses (fish-/fire/-flies). The alliterative sound of the secondary stresses is then elevated in the last foot to a primary stress (flame). This effect is enhanced by the switch from dipodic feet (i.e. feet with both a primary and a secondary stress) to clashing accents (i.e. two stresses in a row). Both the sound play and the meter condense beautifully at the end of the line.

I'll end by repeating the line, without markings, just to force you to read it again:

As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame

[Ian Hoffman]

'Tis a good line. I'm partial at the moment to the poets who I'm ready obsessively; and I do find in their works very good lines--though not of the sort we usually rave about on the sphere.

I TOO have been to Candyland, but I found myself missing the death cult.

—Anthony Madrid, I Too Have Been to Candyland

The uppercase "TOO" is absolutely killer, positioning his poem (which proceeds as a sort of demented ghazal) squarely and ironically in the tradition of old-school translations of Arabic verse.

I'm also a big fan of Michael Robbin's one-liners. Absolute zingers.

The smallpox uses every part of the blanket
—Big Country

I translate the Bible into velociraptor.
—Alien Vs. Predator

In fact, I think whatever people think of Robbins—and probably Madrid, who is his good friend, by extension—they'd be forced to admit that their lines, at least when taken out of context, are often surprising and funny. And that, in short, is what I like about lines like these—they surprise us.

I could quote probably any line in Frederick Seidel's absolutely digusting, epic and moving "Mr. Delicious":

The hydrocephalic jewelled hat the doge wore

being one of the more innocent examples. A "hydrocephalic jewelled hat"—I don't really know what it means, but it sure sounds good.

Seidel, however, is in general less given to crazy one-liners. It's the content of his entire poems that shocks.

Well, enough evangelizing. I do like the Hopkins you present, but I disagree that it's as spectacular as you find it, which is just proof how subjective all this is. For me, spectacular lines are memorable often because they surprise, which Hopkin's line doesn't. It's just some more—albeit well-wrought—nature imagery.

Other lines that have stuck with me (which leads me to believe their "good") are often first lines. In them is weight and power, which perhaps helps:

That is no country for old men. The young

Death be not proud, though some have calléd thee

Then again, I tend to remember what comes next as well.

[Roger Slater]

I'm not a huge Eliot fan, but one of his lines pops into my head now and then:

I do not think that they will sing to me

[Julie Steiner]

Originally Posted by Ian Hoffman

The hydrocephalic jewelled hat the doge wore

...I don't really know what it means, but it sure sounds good.

Google "corno ducale" and view Images. Because Venice was a republic, the doge's headwear was based on a Phrygian cap (symbol of liberty) rather than a crown.

Not my favorite poem. I agree that that line is great.

When I'm in a not-very-creative mood, I like to steal someone else's fantastic line and use it as the basis of a new poem--with full acknowledgment, of course. I tell myself that the resulting work is not really derivative if I give enough of a different spin to the borrowed line. (Others may disagree, and that's fine.) There are various forms, such as the sonnenizio, that actually require the author to rip off, and then riff on, someone else's line.

[Edward Zuk]

The line that keeps recurring to me lately is from Yeats. It contains a line break but is one phrase, so it may or may not qualify for this thread:

“. . . more substance in our enmities / than in our loves.”

This seems to me to explain a lot of what has happened during and since the U.S. election and, incidentally, a lot of the rancour in the GT threads, too.

Some other favourites that definitely qualify:

“Let Grill be Grill and have his hoggish mind.” – Edmund Spenser

Grill appears in only a stanza or two of The Faerie Queene, but here he rises into an aphorism. I think it’s the earthy sound of “Grill” (reinforced by the repetition) and the wonderful “hoggish mind” that do it.

“He stared at ruin. Ruin stared straight back.” – John Berryman

This line begins as a cliché, but the personification raises it to something that I immediately recognize as serious. The repetitions and triple stress at the end slow down the line to emphasize the weight of what is being said. There is also the hint of paranoia and derangement.

“Death is no different whined at than withstood.” – Philip Larkin

The meaning of this line is wonderfully counter-intuitive, or should I say, against what we have been taught to believe. But it is the alliteration (and consonance) that help make it so memorable. Many of Larkin’s greatest lines go heavy on the alliteration and consonance: “What will survive of us is love”; “Man hands on misery to man”; “Never such innocence,” etc.

[Ian Hoffman]

Larkin does have some goodies, Edward. Also from Aubade

That vast moth-eaten musical brocade

And even little moments like

Death, and being dead

Just strong writing in general.

[Michael F]

Hmmmm, maybe I'm not playing by the rules, because i) these are free verse poems, and ii) I'm not quite sure they're single lines -- they may be two. And one is even in translation. But they stick in my mind, like gum to the sole of a shoe, as a single line...

A morning glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books. -- Whitman, "Song of Myself"

My identifying features are rapture and despair. -- Szymborska, "Sky"

[Roger Slater]

You remind me of Whitman's "And a mouse is miracle enough to stagger trillions of infidels ..."

I also love his: "All music is what awakens from you when you are reminded by the instruments"


PS--
Actually, I favor the version of that first line that reads: "And a mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels."

[Michael F]

Rogerbob, yes! Whitman is full of great lines. I almost posted this:

Logic and sermons never convince, the damp of the night drives deeper into my soul.

[William A. Baurle]

Two that always stuck with me, from two very different poets:

Turn the key deftly in the oiled wards - John Keats

After the first powerful plain manifesto - Stephen Spender

then there's

Tomorrow to fresh fields and pastures new - Milton

On the bald street breaks the blank day - Tennyson

and why not that line that breaks the no-3-stresses-in-a-row rule, also from Tennyson:

Break, break, break

The single greatest line I've ever heard, and I don't even read Latin, is from Virgil:

quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula campum

If you hear it correctly (I believe there are soundfiles available somewhere), you can hear the horses galloping.

If I ever taught poetry, the first lesson would be for my students to memorize that line, and to learn how to speak and hear it.