Free Verse and Line Breaks

T.S. Eliot's poem, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", has some good examples of line breaks and poetic rhythm. Line five says, "The muttering retreats", and then cuts off and picks up again at the beginning of line six. I think this is one of the best examples from our readings of a line break. The word retreat means to leave or take a rest away from normal. Retreating is leaving your musy normal life, pausing to restore forcus and peace. The line break is trying to actually imply the meaning of a retreat. By pausing, even if its just mentally, our imagination retreats with the lovers Eliot is talking about. I said "even if its just mentally" because I often read poems by punctuation. Even if a line breaks or a rhyme scheme is normal ABBA....I would still read and breathe with the placement of the commas and periods. Again, in line forty-five, Eliot has placed an important break. "Do I dare", he says, "Disturb the universe". The break between those two fragments has great value. This is obviously a very big deal. When someone asks "do you dare" or "do I dare" there is often a pause of silence to follow. Both people, the speaker and the hearer are probably thinking about the dare or the issue very strongly. Therefore, Eliot's break is valid. I think that most line breaks, especially in T.S. Eliot's poems, are relevant and help to connect the reader to the piece.