Do you agree or disagree?

I'm not sure if there is another post like this going around but I just had a thought.

Do you think you can judge a poem by the first few lines or first stanza? I mean if you were given the first stanza of a poem, could you judge how well written the rest of the poem would be, the overall subject and maybe the format of the rest of the poem?

It's just a thought because I know I really shouldn't but if I read the first few lines of a poem and find countless spelling mistakes and general errors, poetical or not, I will skip the poem and not continue the read on the presumption that the rest of the poem will be the same. I guess the reason I do this is because I think if the poet can’t be bothered to put as much effort into the poem as to check for errors then why should I bother reading and giving feedback.

Does anyone else do this? Or strongly disagree with it?

Please feel free to discuss, I want to know what others think, and do.

Thanks & take care,
Silver.

well i don't care if there are grammar or spelling mistakes in the poem. but if the first lines are somehwere around

he made me cry so hard that night
and me and my mother had a fight
by my wrist i held a knife
hoping to end my life.

then i don't read it

The first stanza is the one I make sure I read carefully, its the one that pulls me in as a reader to read the rest of the poem. Sometimes I will be interested in the first or second stanza and lose focus on what they are writing about but everyone has their own style of writing.

~Juls~

In a long poem, if the first few lines do not catch your attention, the rest falls apart. But then again, if the first few lines are impeccable and the middle is mediocre, the end will probably collapse as well.

It depends really. Some people tend to get more into writing the farther along they get. You never know, the beginning might not be the best, but you could find the best stanza you ever read at the middle or end.

Poetry can be unpredictable.

-Tony

Yes...

A great opening makes a good poem. When you look at the first lines of the poem, you do not want to be bored. You want to see the world, pain,love with just those few words.

Even spelling errors, can turn readers off.

If you can't understand something, or cannot deciper the words. How can you see the beauty of their works?

Ok...

We are not mocking them for their background. We are saying many readers get turned off by spelling errors and grammer mistakes. If they have the computer, and they use Microsoft, then they can use Ms Word.

And in here there is a spell checker.

Readers want an opening to stay tuned in. Not because they have to, because they want to.

Excellent contribution to the discussion, *trapt*n*love*...

It's really all about how you use the words.. spelling errors, for me, are a turn-off, but don't always stop me from reading a poem.. even amazing poets can have bad spelling skills; as much as id prefer correct spelling, a misspelled word or two has never spoiled a (good) poem.

about the beginnings, i think the poem should be consistent in quality.. a lot of times i write a line i love but can't seem to match it's quality, and just commit the line to memory.. but i think the first lines of a poem are definitely important, as well as the title.. we all have our tastes and i'm pretty good at picking out poetry i'd enjoy, personally..

If you think about it, it is akin to story telling and I feel that a poem should be seperated into 3 parts regardless of how long or short the poem is: -

1. Begining - Set the scene, the subject and theme.

2. Middle - The story itself.

3. End - The conclusion to the story.

Spelling of course is important, if I see a poem with bad spelling it will put me off reading it.

I don't completely disregard a poem due to a slow start. I usually skim the entire poem and if something further down catches my eye, I'll go back and read the entire thing. There have been many times that I've found an amazing piece of work that way.
As for the grammatical errors and misspelling, I can over look that for the most part. Just as long as it's not like computer jargon (ex. using "u" for the word "you"). That drives me crazy.

yeah i agree HOLLY ARMER a poem should be deeper and deeper to make that great piece

I hate to admit it, but I do the same thing as you. But instead of just not reading it, I don't read it and leave a message telling them to use the freakin' spell check. I don't usually swear, or even go as far as freakin. But I get mad at those situations. I mean, there is a reason they put spellcheck there!

the first stanza is a foundation stone of a poem... if it is rivetting then the reader mite read ahead... or else ALT+F4 is the best option that ppl consider to avoid reading the poem... even the BACK button works well if not the former one.

I think it depends...

I don't think that the first stanza is a set stone for how the rest of the poem goes, but it is a building block.

I do, however, think that if one has errors in his/her first stanza, there are many more to come. I say this, because I've read a lot of poems like that.

But...

If someone has a really great first stanza, that doesn't necesarily mean that the rest of the poem will be great. I tend to have better beginnings than endings, so that's why I say that.

All I say is, you can't judge a poem by the first stanza, just like you can't judge a book by its cover.

~BJ~

dear bj,

thats wat i meant to say... its gr8 that u agreed... take care...

To the original poster. I kinda agree, first impressions are very important.

The thing that turns me off is if the poet uses "I" too much.

yeah i agree but if there is a great first stanza the poem probably starts to slip and you can see that the consentratioon of writing a poem has gone and the effort dittieriates [cant spell it sorry] throughtout a poem of a person who does not care enough about thier poetry to have feeback or anything but i think that you can judge someones cahracter very well by whatthey write
xxx

I do that to. i dont finish reading a poem if the first lines suck.

If i read the poems first two lines and they dont catch my attention i read another one and forget about that one.

I have found that sometimes the endings of poems are better. I NEVER read the beggining of a poem and then leave it..I want to know what the author intended when writting that poem and you can't always know that by the first few lines..in other words, read all the way through to get the meaning of the poem.
And also some people do not have English as a first language (me included). So obviously they will not be as good..Plus, I don't agree with judging a poem by it's gramar mistakes. That's not what poetry is about!

So I disagree with you.
--Viola

Adfgeede

Yeah..the first stanza must be striking to read..but if doesn't I don't continue the reading