THE END OF THE LINE

One of the most effective tools a poet has is the choice of word at the end of the line. This is the word that reverberates, this is the word that sticks. So choose those end words carefully! Make them powerful, pivotal, full of life. Break your lines with words that make readers want to go on to the next line, and the next. The suspense in a poem lives in the line endings. (In longer prose works, last sentences of chapters play the same role.)