This document provides an overview of how to write a poem. It explains that the poet decides where the lines end in a poem, which affects how the poem looks on the page with spacing and formatting. White space and line breaks influence the reader's pace and emphasis of certain words. The example poem shows line breaks being used to separate the lines of verse and create pauses for the reader.

1. How to Write a Poem

2. POEM What makes a poema ?

3. lines

4. Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,Old Time is still a-flying:And this same flower that smiles to-day To-morrow will be dying. The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun, The higher he 's a-getting, The sooner will his race be run, And nearer he 's to setting. (Robert Herrick (1591–1674)

5. Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old Time is still a-flying: and this same flower that smiles to-day to-morrow will be dying. The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun, the higher he 's a-getting, the sooner will his race be run, and nearer he 's to setting.

6. the poet decides where the lines end

7. It affects …

8. How the poem looks to us on the page

9. is there a lot of w h i t e s p a c e, lightness air breathe

10. are the words packed solidly together?

11. It affects how fastor s l o w l ywe read,

12. P A U S E where we when we're reading.

13. It makes certain wordsstandout

14. PAUSE for PUNCTUATION Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,Old Time is still a-flying:

15. EMPHASIS But being spent, the worse, and worst Times still succeed the former.

16. Create!