eaf - I disagree with Carol - using line breaks to help emphasize a point seems similar to using substitutions to draw attention to a particular point in the poem. - I think that typography FX (underlining, italics, colored texts, line breaks) are commonly considered as somehow lesser (or even more gimmicky) than sound FX and word choice. Being in quote mode I'll throw in "William Carlos Williams and the Meanings of Measure", Stephen Cushman, Yale Univ Press, 1985, p.72 - A purely graphic theory of prosodic measurement has inevitable limitations. Because the ear dominates prosodic theory, auditory phenomena will continue to take precedence in the writing and analysing of verse.
Where auditory patterns are strong, typography will be considered secondary. Where auditory patterns are weak, poetry will be accused of being prose. Many readers feel that strong visual patterns do not compensate for the loss of rhyme schemes and scansions.
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