What The Lines Do

Whenever you read, consider what the lines do to you.

Some lines are crisp.

To the point.

Perfect.

Tight.

And then there are some lines that drag too many heavy words along the entire disinterested width of the page and can only bore to death the eye and the ear and the mind, and sometimes even the soul if one is not careful.

Some lines roll easily along in soothing open vowel sounds.

Others work the mouth into a froth of cumbersome clumsy stumbling consonant-awkwardness.

One line can begin rather slowly, then quickly ramp up an energetic and explosive ka-POW!

Another bangs out its racket in the first half, then relaxes, then breathes more heavily, and then...finally...snores.

Some are unfortunate, rural, morbid, dull-sounding, vulgar lines, which lull, rob, and ruin.

But at last, there are those lines that shine and sparkle with their bright smiling sounds, like wide happy eyes splashing out the daylight's very brilliance.

And it's all on purpose.

Notice?