punctuation

somebody left this as a comment
"Many will tell you that intense punctuation is crucial, but those people are entirely miss-informed. Look up some of the most famous poems and you will find little, if any, punctuation."

now really, I read poetry ,and alot of it, and loads of times there is.......punctuation.
comments like this really make me wonder if 90 % of the people on this site have an idea ,even remotly, what poetry is or should be,
or am I really that mistaken?

Punctuation is a part of poetry as is emotion and meaning.Sometimes the lack of punctuation is to serve a point in the poem( such as a strem of consciousness poem), but I think many don't know the true use of puctation as a dramatic and important poetic element.The poem often dictates the puctuation.
Gary Jurechka

Gary has an excellent point as far as use of punctuation as a dramatic and important poetic element, and I personally do think that punctuations enhance a poem and helps to give it effect. I try to write allm y poems as two how they would be spoken and often have numerous punctuations in them to help direct, guide, and pace the reader, and I am a strong and firm believer in punctuations, but Bob also has valid points, as to them not always being necessary, and I agree with him in the case of short formatted poems such as Haikus and Rictameters where the line breaks provide the needed pacing, but in longer poems I think punctuations can serve a very effective purpose and lack of punctuation can offset a pems rhythm for everything is running togeter and you can't get a true sense of the pace and diction of the poem. Remember, the greater the length of your poem, the more need for punctuation.

i tend to use a , or . at the end of each line, and mostly a . at the end of each stanza.

but thats just me. =)

I personally think that placing a comma after some lines in a stanza is helpful, especially when you're moving to a relevant, but slightly different topic.

Personally i think that commas are the only punctuation that should be used

I think that puncuation is necessary to a certain extent. Like commas, periods, question marks, adn maybe exclamation points. But it's really up to the writer on the way they want to express themsleves.

--Amber--