Line length in poetry

[tectak]

The page blowing in the wind comes to mind as an example; this should be the longest line in the poem, stretching, "blowing" out to the margin. Long lines are fast and windy, and give the reader the Impression that the poet was swept away in a breeze of emotions, the vehicle of the muse, the oracle, if you will. A short line is slow and should a be compact poignancy that pacts a punch. Select your arsenal and arrange your weapons in accordance to their delivery.

(ahem) While not axiomatic, I believe the current general consensus is that short lines are faster and lighter while longer lines are slower and more somber.

I am with milo on this ,true.
Puzzlingy, perhaps, the line length is of greater relevance to "speed" per se-- I dislike "speed" and "fast" but am keeping in context--when long, than when short. There is little choice with short lines.
Axiomatic or not, it is not sensible to write an adagio with short, peppery, snappy phrasing. With long phrasing it is possible to achieve both. Same applies to poetry.
Short lines tempt snappy phrasing, enjambment and breathless meter.
Punch-packing is not a slow-motion device.
Best,
tectak

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Terse verse, ha! I was thinking of tec's definition.

yah, we let him get away with that but it is not the actual definition. I am going to start referring to everything he writes as terse verse and see if he can prove me wrong.

Don't need to. As I coined the coupling I claim defining rights.
Suck on these, too
Mirth-verse. An open-ended description of a piece of writing that is so intentionally humerous it makes one smile, or so comedically bad it makes one laugh out loud. This category does not include poems that make one's eyes bleed.
Hearse-verse. Deathly prose taking a sombre subject, writing about it in a maudling fashion and invariably involving the death of some poor sod for the sake of poetic praise.
Dearth-verse. Largely self-explanatory. Just words. The largest category by far.
Curse-verse. That gutter-genre poetry which relies upon using fuck, shit, cunt and twat in any order to invoke any of the following categories of praise:
authentic
earthy
oh so true
relatable
convincing.
Worse-verse. Written by poets who over react to the pressure of crit when editing and gradually edit to extinction.
So there....
Best,
tectak.