In this anthology by Emily Rosko and Anton Vander Zee, emerging and established writers from a range of backgrounds discuss one of the most basic and essential parts of poetic form—the line. Rosko and Vander Zee’s introduction provides an overview of the discourse about the line from the Romantics forward. Reflecting on the line in the historical context of American poetry in the twentieth century and perpetuating the conversation about the line’s influence in shaping the aesthetic, visual, and auditory aspects of poetics, among others, A Broken Thing asks, "What, exactly, is the line?"