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5. END-STOPPED LINE About half of the poem’s lines are end-stopped. The halting punctuation gives the poem an appearance and sound of measured, step-by-step development, calling attention to the artificial—or manmade—nature of the poem, especially given that it represents a vision of fleeting beauty. The end-stopped lines in this poem can be roughly broken into three categories: those that end with a colon, a semicolon, and a period or exclamation mark. Each punctuation type affects the poem’s pace in a different way. Lines 2, 3, and 12 are end-stopped with a colon. In all three cases, the colon seems to accelerates the poem, or to create a moment of tension—like a gate between a champing racehorse and the open track. In line 3, the colon concludes its buildup. As if standing on a precipice, the reader is given the view that the speaker has been waiting to describe. The halting first three lines give way to a flexible description that, though punctuated by caesuras and the softer end-stop of a comma in line 5, flows relatively unbroken until line 7. The colon that ends line 12 works similarly, in that it divides an observation from the outburst it provokes. The image of the calmly flowing river is abruptly transformed into a heavenly appeal: “Dear God!” The lines are separate to emphasize the change from calm to ecstatic, and the colon, which implies a direct relationship between two parts of a sentence, shows the reader in just how little space that transformation can take place. Semicolons, which end-stop lines 7, 10, and 13, have an almost opposite effect. They slow the poem down by changing the subject or adding a new dimension to an image. The semicolon at the end of line 7, for example, completes the first description of the city, but because it’s not a period, it signals that the description may continue. It’s a breath-like pause that solidifies the first unit of thought before proceeding to the next, which starts fresh on its own line. The semicolon that ends line 13 works similarly. It divides one view of the city from a deeper, altered view. The semicolon in line 10 works a bit differently, however. Here, the semicolon cooperates with the anaphora of “never.” The end-stopped line allows “Ne’er” to start its own line, which, in turn, emphasizes the anaphora. It also distinguishes the two parts of the anaphora, which apply “never” in slightly different ways, without dividing them the stark way a period would. Periods and exclamation mark end-stopped lines 8 and 11, and in this way help the poem fit the form it follows, that of the Italian sonnet. In a traditional Italian sonnet, the 14-line poem is broken in an octave (eight lines) and a sestet (six lines). The octave is supposed to present an argument or premise, and the sestet is supposed to respond to that premise. That’s more or less what’s happening in this poem: the octave presents a view of the city, and the sestet reiterates and revises that view. So, at the end of line 8, the period reminds the reader that part one has ended. Also typical of the Italian sonnet is that the sestet enacts a “turn,” or change in perspective. The sestet as a whole enacts that change, but it also contains many changes itself, nearly all of which are marked by an end-stopped line. For example, the exclamation mark that ends line 11 resoundingly concludes the speaker’s bold claim, and prepares us for the next line’s shift in focus. Where End-Stopped Line appears in the poem: • Line 1: “fair:” • Line 3: “majesty:” • Line 5: “bare,” • Line 7: “sky;” • Line 8: “air.” • Line 10: “hill;” • Line 11: “deep!” • Line 12: “will:” • Line 13: “asleep;” • Line 14: “still!”