When line length is equated with breath, does anyone ever muse over the implication of speed (rate might be better) that carries with it? Is Whitman, or Ginsberg at his most Whitmanian, a poet with relatively healthy lungs who wants to get as much said as possible, all the time? Is his speech one without pauses, a speech whose listener is never an individual respondent, but rather a collective entity, inarticulate and unable to fill the silences that flash for a moment between lines whilst Walt inhaleth?

Since I've never found the line/breath equation that compelling, this is written with tongue somewhat in cheek. Which would pose a problem, were this breathed speech and not post bike-ride, sore-hands typing.