Whether to capitalise or not to capitalize the start of lines

[NobodyNothing]

Caps were good enough for Yates, weren't they?  Doesn't that end the discussion?  Beyond that the "new" is just a passing evolutionary flavor, don't you think?

[Leanne]

In Australia, Yates is a seed distributor.

Yeats, on the other hand, was a really crap gardener according to most sources.

[NobodyNothing]

When ee cummings was in vogue, should we have taught everyone to cast their poems in his formalistic style?

---

Should everyone utilize dashes (---) in their poems like Emily Dickinson?

[ellajam]

Caps were good enough for Yates, weren't they?  Doesn't that end the discussion?  Beyond that the "new" is just a passing evolutionary flavor, don't you think?

When ee cummings was in vogue, should we have taught everyone to cast their poems in his formalistic style?

---

Should everyone utilize dashes (---) in their poems like Emily Dickinson?

No, no, no, no and no. IMO each poet should make a conscious decision about every aspect of the poem and whether or not it helps to achieve that occasional perfect experience of reading a poem that hits its mark fully on every level, a poem that the reader loves.

I read plenty of older poetry, like newer poetry a lot of it sucks, it just leaves me cold. Just because someone has written some really great poems doesn't make every one of them successful.

Should we paint every night scene by candlelight? Or not write down poems at all, just stick to the oral storytelling that humans used for so long. Surely something is lost in the reading instead of hearing, And hey, when poems are read, or Shakespeare recited, is the first word of each line stressed? Not to my ear.

[NobodyNothing]

Caps were good enough for Yates, weren't they?  Doesn't that end the discussion?  Beyond that the "new" is just a passing evolutionary flavor, don't you think?

When ee cummings was in vogue, should we have taught everyone to cast their poems in his formalistic style?

---

Should everyone utilize dashes (---) in their poems like Emily Dickinson?

No, no, no, no and no. IMO each poet should make a conscious decision about every aspect of the poem and whether or not it helps to achieve that occasional perfect experience of reading  a poem that hits its mark fully on every level, a poem that the reader loves.

I read plenty of older poetry, like newer poetry a lot of it sucks, it just leaves me cold. Just because someone has written some really great poems doesn't make every one of them successful.

Should we paint every night scene by candlelight? Or not write down poems at all, just stick to the oral storytelling that humans used for so long. Surely something is lost in the reading instead of hearing, And hey, when poems are read, or Shakespeare recited, is the first word of each line stressed? Not to my ear.

It's really an open book, once you get beyond the common parlance/opinion.  Most importantly, I think it's just a matter of a poet knowing what they are trying to do, to pull off, in whatever creative endeavor they are attempting.  And, of course, (ouch) how good they are in doing so.  

I can go with almost any formalistic equation a poet utilizes in an attempt to achieve their poetic intention.  In the end, it works, or it doesn't...for the reader (though I will admit that there are better readers in this way than others).

Anyway...

[rayheinrich]

    If language is living organism, we're vivisectionists.

    If language is a concrete structure, we've confused toothpicks with jackhammers*.


    *Though, technically, you can confuse (as well as daze) almost anything with a jackhammer

---

In Australia, Yates is a seed distributor.

Yeats, on the other hand, was a really crap gardener according to most sources.

    The proper term is "organic farmer"; I'm sure Yeats would agree with me.

    Yates, on the other hand, sells fertilizer as well as seed and has, at least in
    the past, been rather dismissive of Yeats' horticultural ideology, especially
    as to its implications regarding the germination of lines.

[Leanne]

Yes, Yates hates Germans.

[rayheinrich]

Yes, Yates hates Germans.

    And, I might add, for statistically relevant reasons.
    - Heinrich, et alia