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Get comments on your poem's line breaks
Paste your poem and get margin comments on its key line breaks, each showing alternatives and what every choice does to pace and emphasis.
River reads your poem and leaves comments in the margin on the line breaks that matter most. Each comment names what the current break does, then sets out one or two other ways to break the same words, written out so you can see them. It explains what each option changes: which word gets the weight, where the reader pauses, and what a line says on its own. Your poem stays exactly as you wrote it, word for word.
Line breaks are the poet's choice, and there is rarely a single right one. That is why the comments describe effects rather than handing down rules. A line ending on "the" can be a flaw or a held breath; a long run of end-stopped lines can feel monotonous or deliberately still. River says when your current break is already the strongest option, and names what that break is protecting, so you know what a later revision should not lose.
This is for poets revising free verse, and for anyone whose lines currently break wherever the page ran out. It also reads formal poems, but there the meter and rhyme come first, so suggestions say what a change would cost. Tell River what you want the poem to feel like and the comments weigh every option against that. You decide what to try, reading each version out loud, in your own draft and at your own pace.
How line breaks shape a poem
A line break is a small pause and a point of emphasis. The last word of a line sits briefly in white space, so it carries extra weight, and the first word of the next line arrives with a little surprise. Breaking where a phrase ends is called end-stopping: it gives the reader rest and lets an image settle. Running a sentence across the break is enjambment: it pulls the reader forward and can build tension or surprise.
Enjambment can also let a line mean two things at once. In "a man talking to no one / in particular", the first line stands alone as loneliness before the second turns it into an ordinary phrase. Breaking on a strong noun or verb gives that word the stage. Breaking on a small word like "of" or "the" leaves the reader hanging, which is a weakness only when the hanging serves nothing in the poem.
White space is part of the line as well. Stanza breaks, indents and dropped lines all ask for a longer pause, and readers notice when the gaps follow the meaning. Short lines tend to quicken and sharpen; long lines slow down and make room. The most useful test remains reading each option aloud at your natural pace. Notice where you breathe, which words you lean on, and where you feel the poem turn. Keep the version that sounds most like the poem you meant.
How it works
Paste your poem
Paste the poem with its current line and stanza breaks, exactly as you have it now.
Say the aim
Optionally, tell River what the poem should feel like, so options are weighed against that.
Read the comments
Each comment shows the current break, one or two alternatives, and what each one changes.
Try them aloud
Read each version aloud at your own pace and keep the breaks that sound like your poem.
What you get
- Comments pinned to the specific line breaks that most change how your poem reads
- One or two alternative breaks for each, written out so you can see them
- A plain explanation of what each option does to emphasis, pace and meaning
- Notes on stanza breaks, indents and white space where they affect the reading
- Your current break defended when it is already the strongest choice for the poem
- Your poem kept word for word in the document, with nothing rewritten or reformatted
Common questions
What is a line break in poetry?
A line break is where one line of a poem ends and the next begins. It is separate from the sentence, so a line can end mid-phrase or at a full stop. The break creates a small pause and puts weight on the line's last word, which is why where you break changes what the reader hears and notices.
What is the difference between enjambment and end-stopping?
An end-stopped line finishes at a natural pause, usually the end of a phrase or a punctuation mark, so the reader rests before going on. An enjambed line runs its sentence over the break, so the reader is pulled into the next line. End-stopping tends to feel settled or deliberate; enjambment tends to feel urgent, surprising or unresolved.
Will River change my poem?
No. The poem goes into the document exactly as you pasted it, with every line break, space and stanza gap kept. All suggestions are comments in the margin. If you want to see a whole alternative version, ask for one and River writes it below your original rather than replacing it.
Does it work for sonnets and other formal poems?
Yes, with the form respected. In metrical or rhymed verse the line usually has to hold its meter and rhyme, so River does not propose breaks that would undo them without naming that cost. It looks instead at where enjambment and end-stopping fall within the form, and where a pause inside the line could carry weight.
What if I disagree with a suggestion?
Keep your break. Line breaks are the poet's choice, and the comments are options with reasons, not corrections. Disagreeing is useful in itself: if you can say why your break is better, you understand what it is doing. Telling River what you want the poem to feel like brings the suggestions closer to your intent.
Can it help with prose poems?
A prose poem deliberately has no line breaks, so River will not propose lineating it unless you ask. If you are deciding whether a piece should be a prose poem or lineated verse, ask for comments on how it might break, and River will describe what lineation would add and what the paragraph form already does.
Get comments on your poem's line breaks
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