Proper English

Does anyone else suddenly get annoyed with poems written more like a 7 yr old wrotethem? I mean seriously capitalizing your I's not being racist and everything else isnt really that difficult .. I understand its sometimes nice to write bending rules of english and typos are not uncommon and dont lesson the poem In my opinion but .. if your calling people "niggas" or using i'm i every other word its just pure annoying. what do you guys think?

I disagree. If someone's made such a slapdash attempt when they write poetry to the extent where they don't even extent the word "you" to it's correct spelling, it doesn't seem like to me that they've even read through their own work twice, let alone had the devotion to put good presentation into it.

Is it impossible to look past how it's written and focus on what's written?

I tend to loseintrest quickly if there are more inncorrect words and such

I HATE IT when people dont capitalize their I's it drives me crazy.. and when ppl start using that word I tend to lose interest in the poem.

Well "I" unfortunatley am one of those who is guilty as charged on not capitilizing her "I" 's : ( and honestly "I" dont see it as that big of a deal...almost anything else "I" can understand. Unless it's an honest typo "I" honestly dont like reading poems with misspelled words (("I" mean misspelled and unreadable))...it just kind of kills the poem. On the other hand "I" really am not attracted to poems that would have words like the "n" one in them but sometimes "I" do come across them if I'm looking at quotes. Nonetheless "I" dont think it should be made a big deal out of...that's the way some people spell and though "I" don't like it...as many others don't "I" suppose...it's still their own unique way of writing and in the end it's really not hurting anyone...

p.s.

It was a big pain to recheck all my apostrophes ((spelling?)) here...it kind of takes away from what i'm trying to say because its just not how "I" type when "I" have a lot to say. When im writing a poem or a school essay then "I" really focus on that...is that so bad :( ? If so i'm sorry if "I" didnt fix everything here :/.

No worries, you got most of it.

From Amy's point, we do work to tolerate shortcomings in grammar and proper English, but such carelessness on the poet's behalf makes it easier for a reader to have preconceptions about the time and effort that the poet put in. For me, if a poem is well-written, I would assume that imagery is worth reading more carefully to check for a modus operandi or a relative subject that can bring about a newer level of understanding towards the poet's motive within the poem. But if a poem looks like a half-hearted attempt, I wouldn't look over the sections as much because if someone didn't have the time for good presentation, they wouldn't have the time to think of subtle imagery house styles.

I agree .. I is a word that is to be used sparingly if at all a typo and mispelling are different too and I don' know about you guys, but I tend to write mine all down as they pop into my head I type them later when I'm even less confident why I wrote them, usually puts a new spin on them too, so no I don't see minor typos as too big or a deal

Why does it really matter if the 'i's arent capitalized??
you can still read the poem, whats the big deal? if you can't read a poem because the i's arent all capitalized... thats just amazing... seriously...
and you really should be focused on what the poem's about.
i understand if they haven't spelled one word in the poem correctly... b/c thats just annoying and hard to read, but the i's?!?! come on...

I'm not too big of a fan of proper english when it comes to writing poetry. (Speaking it and writing stories are different though). I look at it like this... however it's in your heart then that's how it comes out and if people don't like then that's their problem. It's not gonna take away from the depth and meaning of the poem and they'll just miss out.
It's a different story if you're unable to read it. But personally capitalization shouldn't matter at all. I have poems where I felt like "i" wasn't important and neither was anything else and to express that I kept it lower cased. Some poems every word except certain key words were lower cased for emphasis.
At times I purposely do things in my poems as a way to show how I feel or another personality or character. So I don't think this is a big thing to complain about because you never know how the writer meant for their poetry to be seen.

I will. E.E. Cummings writes a small I - as in 'i'.
Lol...Bob you anticipate well....the first thing that came to me when I read your post was cummings, and you covered it :P

But do you know WHY he does that? Separate unique identity, attention seeking, or an actual purpose? i always wondered. :P

Becca put it so well

I once had to comment 5 poems for a girl who had won a contest of mine. I put "Capitilize your I's, check you spelling, etc." as the first line in every comment, just because it annoyed me so much. I think that if someone is going to be kind enough to read your poem, at least treat them to proper English.

It doesn't really matter...well proper English maybe important..i think its not