Poem Advice on Punctuation

[Janellebelovedpig]

@acancello @esther-c @felicity @any other poets or poetesses.

I can’t figure out how to punctuate throughout and also at the end of the lines. Thoughts?

 

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.

[Esther]

@janellebelovedpig

Here are my ideas for punctuation. I put them all in bold.

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.

Those are just my suggestions. 🙂 It doesn’t follow all the grammar rules, but it’s poetry. 🙃

Write what should not be forgotten. — Isabel Allende

[Janellebelovedpig]

@esther-c

Thank you, Esther! This is for the next part in the allegory!

[Esther]

@janellebelovedpig

Yw!!

Oooh, awesome!! 😀

Write what should not be forgotten. — Isabel Allende

[Starshiness]

@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.

I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.

[Elanor]

I am terrible at punctuation and always let my bestie go to town on my poems because she’s the punctuation queen.

But I had to pop on and say that’s a beautiful poem.

"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us." - Gandalf

[Felicity]

@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! 😉

He must increase, but I must decrease.

[Janellebelovedpig]

🙃That moment you realize you read the comments and they meant a whole lot to you, but you never responded to them.😁🤗 Thank you so much for your feedback! You all are awesome.

I’m getting ready to post my next section in the allegory; I’ll try to tag you!

@starshiness

*Happy gasp* Another allegory writer! What’s yours about?

@elanor

Awh, thank you for popping on!

@felicity

Yes! Psalm 19 was my inspiration. Part of that in NASB already rhymes, so it was fun working out the rest of it. I love power words and this poem is thick with them.

 

Thanks again, y’all!

[Starshiness]

@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 😆

I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.

[Author]

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