Capitalisation

[Stephen Whiteside]

Capitalisation

There are those who maintain
It is wise to refrain
From using a capital letter
To kick off each line.
They witter and whine,
Professing it's very much better

To use lower case
In that critical space
Where the next line of rhyming begins.
They're spoilers of fun.
They assert this is one
Of poetry's Capital sins.

They say it's outdated,
And quite antiquated.
It's wretched, decrepit, and base.
They call for repentance.
They say a new sentence
Is held for the next upper case.

They say if we stick
To this fashion we'll lick
Those doubters who say we're 'old hat';
That the flags on our mast
Are attached to the past,
That we're creaky, cobwebby and flat.

I put it to you
There is nought we can do
To make rhyming verse look postmodern
(Though we don't have to camp
In the rain and the damp
With the sheep on the banks of the Loddon).

We will always look old.
We are spawned from the fold
That gave the land Banjo and Lawson.
So what is the point
Of upsetting the joint
By part of their style disendorsin'?

I'd throw in the towel
(Each consonant, vowel;
To do it, indeed would be bliss)
Rather than write
by a candle each night
truckloads of rubbish like this!

Stephen Whiteside 13.11.2013

[Neville Briggs]

Good job Stephen, well written and a suitable protest style.

I agree. I think the "capitalisation" complaint is a non-issue when it comes to determining good verse writing. Capitalisation of verse lines is still used in some contemporary practice, so the argument that it is outdated is a mistaken argument.
It appears to be just a matter of preference. Aren't poets prudent enough to grasp " the things that matter "

[Glenny Palmer]

(tch tch)