A poem is a type of writing in which the poet chooses and arranges words to convey strong emotions through meaning, sound and rhythm. A simple way to recognize a poem is by its structure. Poetry has certain structural elements that are different from prose. How a poet structures a poem can affect the poem's meaning. Every poem has lines, which are rows of words. Unlike sentences, lines in a poem do not always follow rules of capitalization and punctuation. Poets may create their own patterns of capitalization to emphasize certain words in relation to the poem's meaning. Lines in a poem are often broken up into stanzas, or groups of lines set apart by spaces. Stanzas are somewhat like paragraphs in prose. Each stanza fits into the overall structure of a poem. Poets may use more than one stanza to develop their ideas or theme. They may also break lines and stanzas to get the reader's attention.