basic punctuation rules

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alikim

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I've never been good at punctuation in any language and there are always dozens if not hundreds of rules, but I believe there are some most important basic punctuation rules known to everyone which will roughly put your sentence into shape.

So I'd appreciate it if someone will point me to a link or just mention maybe 3 most important reasons to put those commas and semicolons in your sentences.

Thank you!
 

easybreakable

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Nice link, I was about to ask for something related to the same issue.
I think I'm fully grasping the rules but sometimes I suck at using them while writing poetry.
The editor I'm dealing with -who is a native speaker- keeps telling me that I use the punctuations exaggeratedly which is not something good regarding the flow :shock:... Any thoughts about this?
 

Rover_KE

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Post us a sample of your work (not too long) so we can judge for ourselves what specific problems you might have.

Rover
 

easybreakable

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Thanks for such chance, check out this, one of the poems I'm speaking about, according to his own opinion, the punctuation here interrupts the flow and not needed in many places...

Hearts’ Vagrancy
Guess my pigeons
too blind, they were,
to cradle your skies,
rousing the chiaroscuro,
for only lament
of distant drums,
heard so far…
In nebulas,
misconstrued as slumber.

Authentic, thought,
fate read on the palms,
fidelity,
once danced upon the lips,
thus, blame not
feathers in the wind,
pillows mutually wept;
lest blackening the memory.

“Longing”
the language,
these footprints,
taught brilliantly,
notion, pulsates:
(hopefully not)
in dimness of portraits,
Injuriously,
you may never feel.
 

Barb_D

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The rules for prose don't apply the same way to poetry.

Most of those commas at the end of lines seem out of place and the semi-colon after wept doesn't make any sense to me at all.

But it's POETRY and if you are the poet, you get to choose!
 

Raymott

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Thanks for such chance, check out this, one of the poems I'm speaking about, according to his own opinion, the punctuation here interrupts the flow and not needed in many places...

Hearts’ Vagrancy


Guess my pigeons

too blind, they were,
to cradle your skies,
rousing the chiaroscuro,

for only lament

of distant drums,
heard so far…
In nebulas,
misconstrued as slumber.
I'd delete the commas above in red, and keep the blue one.


Authentic, thought,

fate read on the palms,
fidelity,
once danced upon the lips,

thus, blame not

feathers in the wind,
pillows mutually wept;
lest blackening the memory.
What is it that danced upon the lips? Everything is so qualified with commas before this line that it appears not to have a subject.
Remember that a line break can add a pause, such as between 'palms' and 'fidelity'.


“Longing”

the language,
these footprints,
taught brilliantly,

notion, pulsates:

(hopefully not)
in dimness of portraits,
Injuriously,

you may never feel.
There are definitely too many commas. It's true that it's your poem; and it's potentially a good one. I'd advise you to keep the grammatically essential commas, and delete anything that, in prose, would be optional.
Delete anything
that in prose
would be optional
Then if something doesn't make sense, you can put one back in.
 

easybreakable

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"Fidelity" is what meant to dance on the lips.


Thanks for your intervention, I appreciate your thoughts and you do know how to give a good advice very well. :up:
 
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