A burnt line is a poetic line that conveys scorching intensity—through violent imagery, caustic diction, or searing emotion—leaving a sense of irreversible damage or purification; often found in poems of rage, trauma, or apocalyptic vision, this line uses incendiary metaphors (fire, ash, scarring) to mark a point of no return, where language itself seems consumed by the heat of its subject, as in the Holocaust poetry of Paul Celan or the scorched earth of contemporary climate elegies.

Line with damaged or partially erased text, often in manuscript poetry. Related: textual criticism, lacuna. Scholarly term for material damage. Differs from intentional ellipsis; poses editorial challenges.