Contentment

[Erthona]

"This year's Poetry Issue for February features Angela Jackson's "More Than Meat and Raiment". There are even recent Nobel laureates whose published works will incorporate this affectation into their work. Even in contemporary poetry today there are those, who are heavily lauded for their work, that find it has purpose for them and some others around the world. There is no doubt that line capitalization is much less common, but it does seem to have a place in today's poetry beyond appearances in academic textbooks."

My problem with that is what is the rationale for such usage? People used to leave off all caps (thanks to ee cummings) even though there was no true rationale to do so, except they may have thought it looked more poetic which is not an adequate rationale. This goes to poetic integrity and just because a lot people do it, does not justify doing so (they also used to center justify, the only valid reason for that is concrete poetry where one is trying to create an image). As the point of poetry to present the truth in all its multifaceted ways, I cannot personally justify using affected typesetting that only serves to obscure that communication. Of course there are many who would argue that idea.

best,

dale