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Punctuation and Line Breaks

Today we move a little away from the words of a poem and explore the technical aspects of arranging the lines of a poetry with proper adherence to punctuation. Many people often tell me that punctuation is not really important in a poem, it is the words that count. Sure I agree that words are the soul of a poem, but badly spelled or punctuated poetry not only show a lackadaisical attitude on part of a poet but detract from the very essence of a poem. A poem should hold a reader glued to it but seriously it is tough to do so with incorrect punctuation and grammar. Language is a powerful tool in the hands of a poet. We should use it to achieve wonders and give it due respect. Most of the word processors have a spell check facility. Use it, I am amazed at how often I get badly written and misspelled mails from people who claim they are or want to be writers.

Today we are going to examine poetry at a micro level. At the level of each line of poetry to be precise I will start with punctuation, move to line breaks and enjambments and wrap up with caesuras.

What exactly is punctuation?

Punctuations are written symbols in a language which neither correspond to the phonetics of a language nor to the words and phrases of a language. They are used to organize and clarify the thought process of a language.

The rules of a punctuation vary from language to language and usage to usage. There is no universal set of rules governing all the languages. More over the rules keep evolving and modifying. Further the use of punctuation is also to a certain extent an author’s style.

Some poets always write in this style

Line 1 ,
Line 2,
Lline 3,
Line 4.

Line 5,
Line 6,
Line7,
Line 8.

While for some writers each line of a poem is line stopped.

How you use it is up to you but use it you must.

– Continued

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