The Music of the River's Flow

[warooa]

I said there is no rule involved here , Marty .

and I've broken that by involving one

[Neville Briggs]

Stopit

[Bob Pacey]

arewe starting to runwords intone andanother Now ?


robertalanmichealpacey.

[alongtimegone]

Thanks all for your responses.
Nev. I wasn't suggesting that it's a rule it's just that I don't like seeing a capital letter at the head of a line unless a full stop or some other terminal punctuation mark precedes it. Just a personal thing. Nevertheless I've done it myself. I should change the settings on my computer because it puts the capital there automatically.

Cheers everyone ... Wazza

[Neville Briggs]

Behave yourself Pacey.

[Heather]

Warren I agree. I remember reading a book of poetry by Kendell and my brain found it really hard to get the poem to flow with capitals on each line. I wonder why it was ever done in the first place. Neville will know. He knows all about rules and stuff.....

[Neville Briggs]

Oh groan, Heather you must pay attention, I already wrote here why I think it is done. In prose, capitals mark the beginning of each sentence, as Wazza said after a full stop. In poetry I think that capitals have been traditionally used to mark the beginning of each line of metre to emphasise the construction of the verse. I could be wrong.
Of course when the verse is spoken I guess it doesn't matter to the hearer; capitals or otherwise.

[Heather]

Don't you groan at me young man! I found that reading that Kendell poem for the first time that I stumbled and had to have another go at it. Maybe it was badly punctuated. I can't remember. Any piece of writing should be punctuated in a way that makes it flow - the first time. I think having capitals at the start of the line interrupts the poem - but then I could be wrong - but I can live with that!

Sorry Warren, I think your thread has been hijacked. Unusual thing to happen here.

[Neville Briggs]

Any piece of prose should be punctuated so it flows first time, poetry is a design, a construction, it might take several goes to get the idea. As Stephen Fry has said poetry is to be sipped and savoured like fine wine not quaffed like plonk.


Stop hijacking threads Heather. Anyway, this is our workshop, workshops are for working out things, they get a bit messy at times. and with Wazza's poem, it is easy enough to read but because he has used metaphor , I found it useful to read it through several times to get a good idea on the mood and message of the piece.

[Heather]

I forget where I am some days Neville! I can't compete with Stephen Fry. Bloody Stephen Fry. I gave up reading his autobiography (which cost me an arm and a leg!). Wasn't nearly as interesting as he is.