| Issue No.2, Vol.1

The Mystery of Poetry Punctuation

by Michael Lohr

 

 

Within the discipline of poetic verse the various arrangements of "rules" are established and followed depending upon the certain types of poetry written. These rules describe such aspects as the rhythm or meter of the poem, its rhyme scheme, or its use of alliteration, but rarely does it discuss the topic of punctuation. 

 

Punctuation in poetry is seemingly a maddening topic to most poets. When to use it always seems to be a dilemma. Some poets refuse to use punctuation, while some editors demand it be used; commas after stanza lines, periods at the end of each stanza. Usage of punctuation is relative to the type of poetry being written. Didactic poetry like the kind taught in MFA programs demands the use of punctuation, while block, Haiku or Senryu styles do not normally use poetry. Even the capitalization of the first word of each stanza line is debated fiercely. Some poets and creative writing teachers automatically capitalize the first word of each stanza line while others write poetry entirely in lower case. Some editors demand capitalization, but this is not always the case.

 

The governing rules of when punctuation marks should be used are primarily dictated by the circumstances or style of the poetry. These controlling factors of usage include language, location, and technique. These rules are constantly evolving and to an even more aggravating measure, the usage of punctuation in poetry is predominately up to the author. Each language and script, as well as poetic style can have its own set of punctuation marks and usage conventions.

 

There are various types of punctuation beyond the standard commas, apostrophes, colons, semicolons and periods that can be used in poetry. These include dashes, brackets, guillemets, ellipsis, hyphens and the dreaded, infamous interrobang. Though too much punctuation will send a poetry editor into spastic convulsions and most likely get your work rejected. The space between words is actually punctuation, as is the spaces between stanzas. These spaces provide interword separation. And even though interword space is not a punctuation mark or written symbol, the space does serve to organize and elucidate the poem. Hence it is considered punctuation in the grammatical sense.

 

The various types of non-Western poetry, mainly Japanese poetry such as Haiku and Senryu do not use punctuation. Chinese and Japanese writers use a different set of punctuation marks than those using Western languages. Chinese forms of poetry such as Gushi and Jintishi use punctuation marks that would appear very alien to a Western-based poet. Chinese poets and writers also use a six dot  …… ellipsis instead of the traditional three dot style found in Western writing.

 

The use of punctuation in East Asian cultures is a rather recent phenomenon. Ancient forms of Asiatic languages used no punctuation at all. Emphasis marks are one of the most common forms of punctuation used in Chinese and Japanese poetry. Chinese and Japanese poets use this type of punctuation instead of italic type. The Japanese form of this emphasis punctuation is called wakiten and differs little from its Chinese equivalent.

 

Sanskrit, arguably one of the oldest continually spoken and written languages on earth, had no punctuation until the 17th century. Then both Sanskrit and the Marathi language (an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Maharashtrian people of Western India) when written into the DevNagri script, began to use the vertical bar to end a line of verse and a double vertical bar to end the poem itself.

 

Word spacing is also different in Asiatic languages. While Western-based writers and poets utilize a narrow space between each letter and a wider space between each word, Chinese and Japanese writers and poets use a narrow space both between characters and between words. Also when Chinese language is written in Hanyu Pinyin script or Japanese language is written in Kana script, spaces are used by the writer to assist in the reader’s ability to actually read the text.

 

In ancient times, traditional Mongolian language used no punctuation at all. But with the introduction of the Cyrillic alphabet, punctuation is commonly used. In fact, it uses very similar punctuation styles used by writers and poets using the Russian language.

 

What this all really comes down to is that punctuation is up to the poet. Moreover, do not let punctuation get between you and the art of writing poetry. Unlike in writing prose, punctuation in poetry exists as a secondary function and sometimes is not even incorporated into the body of work until the poem has been completed. And always remember when it comes to poetry punctuation, less is better.

<<Serial Spiders

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Michael Lohr is a professional, international journalist, writer and poet. His work has appeared in such diverse magazines as Rolling Stone, Esquire and The Economist, to name a few. He also happens to fancy genre fiction and poetry in particular horror, science fiction and adventure.