the line break IS the punctuation

80.95% • 17 votes • yea
19.05% • 4 votes • nay
Total votes: 21
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the line break IS the punctuation

Magdalena
Spartalena
Tyrant of Words
Wales 62awards
Joined 21st Apr 2012
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Throw your paint at the canvas and see where it lands, then throw some more.  Didn't some humans become great artists doing that.  It's about capturing the audience [if you want an audience that is] not how correctly or not so correctly punctuation is placed.

I've always used lines breaks for pause and movement.  

ee cummings didn't use punctuation or capitalization  

Gahddess_Worship
Osomajestuoso
Tyrant of Words
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Joined 21st Aug 2013
Forum Posts: 796

Noted

lepperochan
Craic-Dealer
Guardian of Shadows
Palestine 67awards
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Forum Posts: 14449

It's hard to define poetry. so it's hard to pin it down with rules (I'd have thought ) as I understand it form may be rigid in terms of syllable count, line count, rhyme scheme (if any)  etc, but none demand punctuation

punctuation carries its own rules wherever it shows up. even that can be stretched. ellipses' for example should have three dots. but two can do the job etc

that said, the Capital letter after full stop rule kinda falls by the wayside in poetry. be it for reasons of aesthetics', rebellion or habit. more people don't than do  

let's face it, grammar can easily take a stretch in poetry if the result is poetic. I, for example can be left from the start of a sentence without  much interference. other side of that coin is tense clash has potential derail a poem, though even that has its exceptions'


so, where there can be stringent rules and regs there also exists a beautiful chaos where there can be anything you want






Gahddess_Worship
Osomajestuoso
Tyrant of Words
United States 37awards
Joined 21st Aug 2013
Forum Posts: 796

lepperochan said:It's hard to define poetry. so it's hard to pin it down with rules (I'd have thought ) as I understand it form may be rigid in terms of syllable count, line count, rhyme scheme (if any)  etc, but none demand punctuation

punctuation carries its own rules wherever it shows up. even that can be stretched. ellipses' for example should have three dots. but two can do the job etc

that said, the Capital letter after full stop rule kinda falls by the wayside in poetry. be it for reasons of aesthetics', rebellion or habit. more people don't than do  

let's face it, grammar can easily take a stretch in poetry if the result is poetic. I, for example can be left from the start of a sentence without  much interference. other side of that coin is tense clash has potential derail a poem, though even that has its exceptions'


so, where there can be stringent rules and regs there also exists a beautiful chaos where there can be anything you want


I agree. Your last paragraph,  to me, captures very well the nature of poetry.  I remember my very first critique on this site.  I was congratulated on a good poem but was told that initial caps per line were no longer necessary or in style.  I accepted that as wrot but after some resesrch found that neither convention is universally accepted. I was confused

Blackwolf
I.M.Blackwolf
Tyrant of Words
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Joined 31st Mar 2018
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What Is Convention Other Than Dogmatic Intention ?

Gahddess_Worship
Osomajestuoso
Tyrant of Words
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Blackwolf said:What Is Convention Other Than Dogmatic Intention ?
Well said.

slowfires5
Lost Thinker
Joined 30th Dec 2017
Forum Posts: 22

a poem becomes a long featureless road without punctuation,

punctuation becomes time, time to read the poem,

time to savour each line or sentence,

people can moralise on punctuation, but a poem becomes mutable it leaving it out,

it becomes a rant, there is on this poetry site the irresistible fascination,

too leaving it out, driving from start to stop; the poet's craftsmanship

of published works all have punctuations;  

anna_grin
ANNAN
Dangerous Mind
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Joined 24th Mar 2013
Forum Posts: 3367

slowfires5 said:a poem becomes a long featureless road without punctuation,

punctuation becomes time, time to read the poem,

time to savour each line or sentence,

people can moralise on punctuation, but a poem becomes mutable it leaving it out,

it becomes a rant, there is on this poetry site the irresistible fascination,

too leaving it out, driving from start to stop; the poet's craftsmanship

of published works all have punctuations;  


oh no honey what is; u doing

poet Anonymous

Magdalena said:

ee cummings didn't use punctuation or capitalization  


but ee cummings did use punctuation. he may have broke up with the grammar/punctuation rules, but he did use it. i think he was one of those people that knew the rules, but decided to explore elsewhere. i would also argue, that some of his poetry isn't accessible to everyone. you and i, and others here, could read is stuff and understand because we have spent time reading poetry. we aren't shocked by crazy line breaks and punctuation in seemingly random places. but if you were to give my dad a sheet of paper with ee cummings buffalo bill's on it and ask him to read it and make sense of it, he would have trouble. because he is NOT a poetry reader.

i've been thinking on this since it was first posted and i'm still conflicted. i can see using the line break as a pause, as emphasis, as a literal break. so yes, that takes the place of the punctuation. i can see that, and when used i can most often get the gist of the poem/thought without all the images running together.

BUT, i'll stand by my earlier statement that sometimes a poem is just easier to read when real, actual punctuation is used. because we're all taught basic punctuation/grammar in school so we have a basic understanding. it levels the playing field for those inexperienced poetry readers. again, my opinion. i am not trying to dispense rules.   i sometimes just wonder if we've made poetry this weird, esoteric thing when i think it should be able to be enjoyed by a vast majority of people.

*i just realized i published my first response under a different profile (DaisyGrace). sorry for any confusion!

Blackwolf
I.M.Blackwolf
Tyrant of Words
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Joined 31st Mar 2018
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"i sometimes just wonder if we've made poetry this weird, esoteric thing"

I think I am a weird , esoteric thing that writes poetry , and sees the world

through different eyes and thought frame than the mainstream  ;


I think there are more than just me out there with this wellness among the

many with a more mundane consciousness entrained by society #$%*@ .

Therefore we shall always have the perpetuation of the weird , strange ,

bizzare people , poets , poems , and ideas of language and punk to nation

as Johnny Rotten would have said...O

                                                                       u

                                                                               t !

Magdalena
Spartalena
Tyrant of Words
Wales 62awards
Joined 21st Apr 2012
Forum Posts: 2993

TheGoddessMinerva said:

but ee cummings did use punctuation. he may have broke up with the grammar/punctuation rules, but he did use it. i think he was one of those people that knew the rules, but decided to explore elsewhere. i would also argue, that some of his poetry isn't accessible to everyone. you and i, and others here, could read is stuff and understand because we have spent time reading poetry. we aren't shocked by crazy line breaks and punctuation in seemingly random places. but if you were to give my dad a sheet of paper with ee cummings buffalo bill's on it and ask him to read it and make sense of it, he would have trouble. because he is NOT a poetry reader.
(DaisyGrace). sorry for any confusion!


Your right and I should have said, "he didn't use punctuation/capitalization in the manner it was meant for, he made his own creative uses of it"  That's my point really, no need for restrictions on creativity.


cold_fusion
Tyrant of Words
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Joined 14th June 2017
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yes
i voted yes

brokentitanium
k.
Tyrant of Words
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Joined 18th Nov 2015
Forum Posts: 1122

I also voted yes

But I'm pretty inconsistent with punctuation from one poem to the next, so maybe don't listen to me! I just do whatever feels intuitively right for each poem. Now that I'm reflecting on it, it seems like I either use punctuation (in which case I try to be grammatically correct about it) or I leave it out entirely and use line breaks, capitalization & spacing to indicate my phrasing instead. I have no idea what goes on in my head to decide which poems need punctuation...

Those little idiosyncracies of each poet are one of things that make this place interesting for me. It gives each poet a unique "accent". God forbid we all follow a set of rules and express things the same way! That would suck.

anna_grin
ANNAN
Dangerous Mind
15awards
Joined 24th Mar 2013
Forum Posts: 3367

agree with u wholeheartedly k

_feral
Fire of Insight
United Kingdom 11awards
Joined 23rd Jan 2021
Forum Posts: 842

i voted yes

i barely use anything apart from maybe line breaks and separating my stanzas at times if i write longer poems (i must be a ranty person then lols) 😂

i only really use punctuation if i'm saying something in a certain way/ trying to highlight somewhere in what i'm saying etc

maybe i'm doing it all wrong and it's 23 lashings from the poetry gods

oh no! 😂

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