Poem Advice on Punctuation

@janellebelovedpig Helloooo! *waves* It’s a pleasure to meet you and read this gorgeous work of poetry! I love the use of slant rhyme, it’s so perfect for this piece; it sounds like a literal psalm from the Bible! Oo you’re writing an allegory?? Coolio, me too!!

As for a few words on poetry punctuation, I would say that it’s not always necessary to punctuate every single line of a poem or any line at all! It’s entirely up to the poet, and has a lot to do on where you want the emphasis placed. (The same is true of capitalization; not every line need be capitalized, if you would like some lines to be emphasized over others or depending on the breaks in every line.)

As for this piece, I added how I personally would punctuate it (which is not too much different from Esther’s version I see lol). I also played with the capitalization a teensy bit, just to give you some ideas. A pattern is established by alternating capital and non-capital letters at the start of each line. The last four lines disrupt this pattern because we want it to add some punch for a sense of finality at the end. These are just suggestions, but I hope this proves helpful! 🙂

The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever,

desirable far beyond refined gold;

Thy judgments are true, righteous altogether,

sweeter than the sweetest honeycomb.

Turning simple to wise,

righteous, rejoicing the heart;

Purely the light of my eyes

cleansing for a new start.

Surety surrounds Thy glories;

Perfection is the Law of my Lord.

Walking in Psalmic Sanctuaries

I find rest and am restored.

@janellebelovedpig

Great poem! I love how you based it off of Psalm 19! I think everyone else gave some good suggestions for punctuation, so I won’t say much, except, keep up the good work! 😉

@janellebelovedpig Yesss!! Genre sisters 🤗😂 weeeelllll “Raven’s Quest” is an allegorical novel centering around a young woman named Raven. Upon learning that her grandmother, her guardian since her parents died, has contracted a seemingly incurable disease, Raven is desperate to do something. She is given a small seed of hope when she hears news about a master healer in faraway Parousia, who may have a cure after all. Raven embarks on a journey and along the way she is introduced to “the Great Archer” (aka Jesus) by a boy named Keston. Following this life-changing meeting, Raven is sent on a mission that will test her newfound faith and determine how strong it really is. Of course the whole exciting part is that adventure and actuallyyy I’m just about to create a post about it so deets will be out soon! I’ve been on a roll with it lately (even tho this has been a WIP for like two years and I’m only seven chapters in🤦🏽‍♀️) so I’m excited 😆