Poetry Mini-Lesson. Line length.
Much of the meaning in poetry comes from the way the poet arranges the lines. In poetry, each line is a unit of meaning. The words a writer uses at the end of each line are specifically chosen to build meaning. In the hands of a poet, one sentence can become a work of art. William Carlos Williams was inspired to write a poem as he was caring for a dying little girl (he was a doctor too). He looked out the window of her room, as he sat by her bed, and saw the scene he describes. This is one of the most famous and best-loved, as well as most analyzed poems of all time. Here it is as a sentence:

So much depends upon a red wheelbarrow glazed with rainwater beside the white chickens.

Try arranging this sentence into a poem.
Feel free to: chop it up into lines, chop up individual words, repunctuate, not punctuate, play with the capitals.
Just don't: rearrange the order, add or subtract any words.

Remember: you're trying to build meaning into the poem with your line arrangement. This could be from the arrangement of syllables to the way the poem looks.

We'll look at the poet's version in a bit. Then keep this poem in mind as we read chapter 3 and beyond, in The Giver.