In poetry, the poet breaks the line with intention, making the poetry line break a unit of the poem itself. ![]() In prose, the line break happens randomly based on the width of the page. Then visit and comment on other people’s poetry and focus on how punctuation works for you as a reader.Line breaks are what make poetry distinct from prose. When you are ready link up below, leave a comment and/or take part in the discussion below. If you want to engage in rule breaking today, please include a note on the rules you are breaking.įor this prompt you can either punctuate an existing poem or write something entirely new poem. If you want to break a rule, you have to know the rule and have a clear intention. To conclude this little feature I would like to talk about breaking the rules, and here comes the most important lesson. For instance two consecutive dashes becomes an em-dash. Personally I have done some changes to my settings so I get it automatically. Some of the more rare punctuation marks does not exist on the keyboard, but they can always be copied as a last resort. ![]() In some cases ellipses and dashes can be interchanged.Īn ellipsis can of course also be used to allege or hint something that you cannot say in an action of self-censorship. In natural speech we often omit part of a sentence. Ellipses is often used as a device in dialogues. The second one is the ellipsis … which tells you that something has been omitted, which can be a great way for the reader to pour their thoughts into your poem. Some haiku poets love to use instead of a cutting word.Įmily Dickinson is a great example of using the em-dash (no it’s not named from Emily but from the fact that it’s width is comparable to an m, rather than the shorter dash that has the same width as an n) The em-dash, which is twice as long as the normal dash/hyphen (-) which is very useful to give emphasis to a text or sometimes cut separate parts of a poem into pieces. Read it aloud for yourself and note how punctuation changes they you read it.īut there are two punctuation marks that has a special place in my heart when it comes to poetry. You do not have to use every single one of them, find your style and see how it changes the way the poem looks and how it may help a reader to get the meaning and the flow of your poem. Use parentheses to separate those parts that are less important. Try to use apostrophes and quotation marks. Hyphenate words to create enjambment within single words. Try to separate the different parts of your sentences using comma, semicolon and colon. Try to use different ways to end your sentences, using full stop (or period), question mark and exclamation mark. There are several good guides about punctuation, and besides I’m very far from an expert.įind a good source and use it and remember that some of the rules are quite ambiguous and you have to find your own style.įor the challenge today I want you to use a few of the following: Many softwares enforce capital letter after a carriage return, but this can be bypassed (eg. Personally I prefer to only use capital letters when it comes directly after a full stop. ![]() The reason for starting each line with a capital letter originally comes from typography rather than a real rule. Poetry often starts each line with capital letter which is consistent with end-stop writing but in many cases it is kept also when doing enjambment. To me punctuation adds a dimension to line-breaks and enjambment, making it clearer and can add a “backbeat” to the line-break rhythm. Just remember that poetry can never be like normal prose you break apart with line-breaks. Punctuation can be used in combination with enjambment to tell where the original parts of the sentences exist. Endstop is when every line break also ends a sentence (or at least a full part of a sentence). Enjambment is when the poet lets a sentence continue past a line break or a stanza into the next. I have grown to love the fact that it gives the reader a clear guideline not only to meaning but also to rhythm and intonation.īefore diving into the subject of punctuation let me mention something about enjambment and end-stop lines in poetry. It took me many years and a course in creative writing to appreciate the importance of punctuation. You will probably, like me, remember lessons back in school where your gaze wanders to the small glimpse of sky you can see through the grimy windows of your school. Today I want you to talk about a subject that might give rise to the same sense of dread as calculus.
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