Thread: one word lines
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Unread 07-10-2002, 02:38 PM
Kevin Andrew Murphy Kevin Andrew Murphy is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: San Jose, California, USA
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I think one-word lines are like peculiar casing of letters, use of archaisms, inversions and so on: When used in a stellar fashion, for a deliberate effect, they're wonderful. When used badly, however, they are annoying and pretentious, and when simply used in a mediocre or unremarkable fashion, the end result is less than stellar and will be criticized as such.

If you write a double dactyl, it's a requirement of the form is that not only must there be a one word line, but that one line must be hexasyllabic and itself a double dactyl.

As with all things, it depends. People frown on things that don't work, and if they're frowning on your one-word lines, that's because they're not working, not because they are specifically taboo.

Kevin

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