Poetry is often separated into lines on a page. These lines may emphasize a rhyming pattern at the ends of lines. Lines may serve other functions, particularly where the poem is not written in a formal metrical pattern. Lines can separate, compare or contrast thoughts expressed in different units, or can highlight a change in tone.
Lines of poems are often organized into stanzas, which are denominated by the number of lines included. Thus a collection of two lines is a couplet (or distich), three lines a triplet (or tercet), four lines a quatrain, five lines a quintain (or cinquain), six lines a sestet, and eight lines an octet. These lines may or may not relate to each other by rhyme or rhythm. For example, a couplet may be two lines with identical meters which rhyme or two lines held together by a common meter alone. Stanzas often have related couplets or triplets within them.
The biggest thing I can say about stanzas and line breaks is be consistent. You can have more that one length stanza within a poem, but try to repeat the pattern throughout the poem. a four line stanza repeated or a four line then a two line, then a four line then a two line etc. Also your stanzas should have an impact on how the poem reads. They should emphasis a break in thought or change of scheme and not just be put there for no apparent reason. Most line breaks are simply to maintain the rhythm of the poem...
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