Hello all,
Today I want you to talk about a subject that might give rise to the same sense of dread as calculus. 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.
Indeed the subject today is punctuation.
It took me many years and a course in creative writing to appreciate the importance of punctuation. 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.
Before diving into the subject of punctuation let me mention something about enjambment and end-stop lines in poetry. Enjambment is when the poet lets a sentence continue past a line break or a stanza into the next. Endstop is when every line break also ends a sentence (or at least a full part of a sentence).
Punctuation can be used in combination with enjambment to tell where the original parts of the sentences exist. Just remember that poetry can never be like normal prose you break apart with line-breaks. To me punctuation adds a dimension to line-breaks and enjambment, making it clearer and can add a “backbeat” to the line-break rhythm.
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. The reason for starting each line with a capital letter originally comes from typography rather than a real rule. Personally I prefer to only use capital letters when it comes directly after a full stop. Many softwares enforce capital letter after a carriage return, but this can be bypassed (eg. by using shift- instead of ). Test around and find your own style …
There are several good guides about punctuation, and besides I’m very far from an expert.
Find a good source and use it and remember that some of the rules are quite ambiguous and you have to find your own style.
For the challenge today I want you to use a few of the following:
Try to use different ways to end your sentences, using full stop (or period), question mark and exclamation mark.
Try to separate the different parts of your sentences using comma, semicolon and colon. Hyphenate words to create enjambment within single words.
Try to use apostrophes and quotation marks. Use parentheses to separate those parts that are less important.
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. Read it aloud for yourself and note how punctuation changes they you read it.
But there are two punctuation marks that has a special place in my heart when it comes to poetry.
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. Some haiku poets love to use instead of a cutting word.
Emily 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)
I heard a Fly Buzz
by Emily Dickinson
I heard a Fly buzz – when I died –
The Stillness in the Room
Was like the Stillness in the Air –
Between the Heaves of Storm –
The Eyes around – had wrung them dry –
And Breaths were gathering firm
For that last Onset – when the King
Be witnessed – in the Room –
I willed my Keepsakes – Signed away
What portions of me be
Assignable – and then it was
There interposed a Fly –
With Blue – uncertain stumbling Buzz –
Between the light – and me –
And then the Windows failed – and then
I could not see to see –
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. Ellipses is often used as a device in dialogues. In natural speech we often omit part of a sentence. In some cases ellipses and dashes can be interchanged.
An ellipsis can of course also be used to allege or hint something that you cannot say in an action of self-censorship.
Some of the more rare punctuation marks does not exist on the keyboard, but they can always be copied as a last resort. Personally I have done some changes to my settings so I get it automatically. For instance two consecutive dashes becomes an em-dash.
To conclude this little feature I would like to talk about breaking the rules, and here comes the most important lesson. If you want to break a rule, you have to know the rule and have a clear intention. If you want to engage in rule breaking today, please include a note on the rules you are breaking.
For this prompt you can either punctuate an existing poem or write something entirely new poem.
When you are ready link up below, leave a comment and/or take part in the discussion below. Then visit and comment on other people’s poetry and focus on how punctuation works for you as a reader.
Björn Rudberg (brudberg) said:
Hello all.. I hope you enjoy this. I hope to see many innovative ways of using punctuation marks. Tonight I sit outside and wait for the house to cool off.
Grace said:
Well I thought this was fun to do. Missing De with her enjambment poems. Cool summer day, with a bit of rain coming later ~ Happy Thursday everyone ~
Björn Rudberg (brudberg) said:
Cool is nice… here it’s still 25C at 9 PM in the evening (and warmer inside)
kim881 said:
Good evening everyone and thank you Bjorn for hosting. As an ex-teacher, I believe in learning how to use punctuation correctly and as a poet I believe in breaking the rules, so this is my kind of prompt! However, I’m on a bit of a low as it’s coming up to the anniversary of my dad’s death, which was four days before my birthday and always makes me sad, while at the same time I’m looking forward to seeing my daughter and grandson at the weekend. I’m excited to see what everyone does with this prompt.
Björn Rudberg (brudberg) said:
I loved the poem you wrote… what a great and subtle use of punctuation… of course I really challenged myself writing a prompt on punctuation with all these teachers and ex-teachers writing to the prompt.
kim881 said:
Yes, there’s quite a few of us and we (I)can be quite pedantic!
sarahsouthwest said:
I’m shaking in my boots now!
kim881 said:
I’ll be getting around to you shortly, young lady! 🙂
Jo-Anne Teal (@jtvancouver) said:
Gosh, I’ll be re-reading and re-reading the information you’ve shared, Björn. So very helpful, particularly to a fledgling writer like me. I often feel I know what I’m doing with punctuation in verse but not in poetry. Can’t wait to jump in with an example soon!
Björn Rudberg (brudberg) said:
There is always the alternative choice of do an e.e. cummings and skip the punctuation as a whole 🙂
Charmed Chaos said:
Very interesting prompt. I went in and re-worked a poem I wrote this morning, keeping in mind some of your teachings here. Thank you Bjorn. I welcome your feedback, so I can continue to learn as a poet.
Björn Rudberg (brudberg) said:
Thank you … it’s a lot of fun working with those little punctuation marks.
grapeling said:
ha! Bjorn, my stuff must drive you crazy then, as I (probably lamely) defy convention wrt punctuation. nothing to add to the prompt today, but always good to read your thoughts
Björn Rudberg (brudberg) said:
Oh – I love your unique way to use punctuation
Dorianna said:
I love the article, good advice. Unfortunately, I rarely capitalize but I do hope I can retain some of these suggestions/rules. I know it would give polish to my writing, just hard to break habit.
Björn Rudberg (brudberg) said:
Take a look at ee cummings, he still used punctuation such as dashes and parenthesizes in his poetry… you can use part of it or everything. That is what’s so great about poetry… the poetic license.
Also haiku is often using some level of punctuation for the breaking word even if it’s most often written without capital letter….
Charley said:
Björn! An awesome prompt, sir! Hello, Versers! I’m sure you’ve missed me as I have missed you. Let the ellipses roll!
Björn Rudberg (brudberg) said:
… let them rock and roll …
Frank J. Tassone said:
Evening, Poets! Thanks, Bjorn! I enjoyed this challenge! I’ll take my usual Burgundy, now. 🙂
Björn Rudberg (brudberg) said:
Burgundy here.. a nice one
Frank J. Tassone said:
Thanks, Bjorn! 😀
rothpoetry said:
OOPs, I did it again. I forgot to enter the month change. Please delete my first post. Sorry!
Björn Rudberg (brudberg) said:
Will do that.
rothpoetry said:
I like this prompt. It really helps the flow to add some punctuation to the poem. I really found your post on Caesura, the pause in the poetic line. I have been using it ever since. Thanks for your good advice for those of us who need some help!
Dwight
Björn Rudberg (brudberg) said:
Some of the punctuation marks can be used for such purposes…
The Guern said:
“…poetry can never be like normal prose you break apart with line-breaks.” — Björn
Hear, hear!
Björn Rudberg (brudberg) said:
Yes!!!
sarahsouthwest said:
This was an interesting (and educational) prompt. I scattered punctuation through my poem, like cherry blossom petals – though I couldn’t find it in my heart to use an exclamation mark. That’s set me wondering why I don’t exclaim in my poems. Maybe this just wasn’t the right poem. I have set myself the task of shouting something exciting in my next piece…or maybe the one after that…
Björn Rudberg (brudberg) said:
Yes, I agree… the exclamation point is the hardest to put in poetry. I remember reading that this is almost an act of indecency. So it’s almost a rule we need to break, just like writing a poem with only capital letters…
Look forward to a poem combining capital letters with exclamation points… (but it might look like a Donald Trump tweet)
Both of us can't look good...it's either me or the house said:
I’ve tried to enter by Mr Linky. Hope it arrives. Sorry, it’s a little while since I came by. Could well do with the bar tonight …
Björn Rudberg (brudberg) said:
welcome back… Mr Linky works as usual, you just have to accept the privacy conditions by clicking in the box.
rosross said:
Thanks for an interesting post. I have been travelling for quite some months and no time for poetry. I am hoping to return to it soon.
Björn Rudberg (brudberg) said:
Great to have you back Ross, mistress of enjambment 🙂
merrildsmith said:
Good morning, Björn, and dVerse pubsters. I wrote another Silence poem. I’m usually careful with punctuation–part of my editorial role, I suppose–but I was quite conscious of pauses for this one. 🙂
Björn Rudberg (brudberg) said:
I think you can punctuate very carefully and still make good use of it…
merrildsmith said:
Oh, yes, of course!
Bekkie Sanchez said:
As you probably noticed I took some time off from writing and linking. Working my way back by slowly joining in again. Going to read now.
A good lesson this time I use punctuation in my poetry now. I used to start each line with a capital letter and no punctuation until one day a poetess I liked asked me why I didn’t use it. I had no good answer and changed my ways then. She was right. I don’t use punctuation as much as I should but I think poetry is better with it.
Björn Rudberg (brudberg) said:
Welcome back Bekkie… doing my last rounds now and will visit your blog…
Bekkie Sanchez said:
Thank you! Good to be back.
lynn__ said:
Thank you, Professor Rudberg, for the lesson here! I do like e. e. cummings style but used some capitals in my poem (for children, big & little) and sprinkled liberally with commas,,,
Björn Rudberg (brudberg) said:
There are so many way to use the punctuation (or not)… parenthesizes and dashes are also included which I think ee cummings did a lot of..
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