Welcome to Writers Talkback. If you are a new user, your account will have to be approved manually to prevent spam. Please bear with us in the meantime
I am wondering about punctuation in poems. This is because whenever I type a poem it automatically starts each line with a capital letter. Is this correct or not? If I am writing a line where it ends with a pause but the next line is still part of the same sentence should it have a capital letter or not? I have got completely confused by it all now. The more I think about it the more unsure I am becoming.
Comments
*SA*
(BTW your word processor doesn't know that you are writing a poem and assumes that a new line is a new sentence or part of a list, which is why it capitalises for you.)
Some poets, not many, still use them, but pick up any book of modern poetry by a good poet and you will see that it no longer applies.
You are a modern poet, writing today, for today's people, so you want to use recognisable punctuation and terms and language.
And it has the wonderful advantage that your poetry is easy to read and flows well!
She glides by
cursed to darkness,
shadow and stillness
her faithful servants.
Forged to fight
beyond the sun,
chained to eternity
and lust for blood.
The last of the lonely,
hunts for her covenant.
Friendless fangs,
deaths cruel smile.
If I didn't believe in punctuation before, I certainly do now. I've lost count of the times they haven't understood what I'm saying (and poetry is by nature the bare minimum of information), a situation which has been resolved by a semi-colon or comma in the correct place! Like you I tend to write without punctuation and put it in after, and quite often I'm sending 'rough' work off to them for critique.
Poetry is communication.
I am not a poetry writer, but when I read the verses I can see when the punctuation is wrong, or it has been put in the wrong place, or missing an important symbol.
Careful thought should be given when submitting poems as well. They can be rejected if they are formatted the wrong way. Unless the editor requests anything different, a common standard is:
TITLE IN CAPS
Double space after title.
Then the body of the poem
single spaced like this and
in Times New Roman 12 pt
or Arial 11pt.
Another double space before
authors name.
Kado
Dont bold the title; it will be considered the work of an amateur. Hope this helps, but please correct me if Im wrong.
That's not something I've heard before and I've just had a look through a few of my poetry books and the ones I checked all had the titles bolded, and sometimes in a larger font than the poem.
I don't use capitals, just a slightly larger font.
The plainer you are, the more professional you will seem. It's amateurs who spend time deciding on fonts, boldness etc, you want to look professional and be judged with them.
That's not something I've heard before and I've just had a look through a few of my poetry books and the ones I checked all had the titles bolded, and sometimes in a larger font than the poem. [/quote]
Hi Heather
I meant at the submission stage. I agree with you, the title of a poem looks better in bold, and a larger typeface, when published in a book.
It does seem like a minor thing to be concerned about, but it could make the difference between being published or not.
Exactly!
Gracious, I am going against every single thing on this thread, but - it's my magazine and no one has yet complained! I just got another batch of poems in to use, all have capital letters at the start ... and all are previously published, too.
I love this sentence Dorothyd. It means you have found a winning formula with your readers; stick with it!
Like Kateyannne, I am intrigued about your magazine.
I agree - your magazine and the poems within are 'just right'. Why change?